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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894199">Guys' Day Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701'>tptplayer5701</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [34]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Nino Lahiffe Friendship, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Friendship, Bad Parent Bob Roth, Concerts, Developing Friendships, Dog Miraculous, Emilie Agreste Lives, Established Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Friendship, Identity Reveal, Male Friendship, Miraculous Holder Félix Graham de Vanily, Miraculous Holder Ivan Bruel, Music, Musicians, New Hero - Freeform, Ox Miraculous, POV Villain, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Snake Luka Couffaine | Viperion, Turtle Nino Lahiffe | Carapace, Who Hasn't Wanted to Throw XY out a Window?, new villains</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:34:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894199</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“A brand-new superstar musician! One day only! You don’t want to miss this, people! Come on out to the Place de la Concorde for an absolutely super experience! It is going to be out of this world!”</p><p>Nino hummed. “That could be fun,” he commented, giving Adrien an evaluating look. “So when’s the last time you went to a live concert?”</p><p>“Two weeks ago.”</p><p>Nino snorted. “When’s the last time you went to a live concert you weren’t playing in?”</p><p>Adrien furrowed his brows in thought. “I… huh. I guess it’s been a while,” he finally admitted, running a hand through his hair.</p><p>“All that’s about to change, dude,” Nino assured him, clapping him on the back. “Your bro’s got you covered.”</p><p>He reached for his phone. “Should I see if the girls are up for it, too?”</p><p>“Nuh uh,” Nino retorted, slapping the phone out of his hand. “This is a guys’ day: no girls allowed!”</p><p>Adrien raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “What is this? A bachelor party?”</p><p>Nino laughed. “Slow down there, dude! You’ve still got plenty of time before that!”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Félix Graham de Vanily, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Ivan Bruel, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Luka Couffaine, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; XY, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Bob Roth &amp; XY, Bridgette &amp; Félix Graham de Vanily, Félix Graham de Vanily &amp; Ivan Bruel, Félix Graham de Vanily &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, Luka Couffaine &amp; Félix Graham de Vanily, Luka Couffaine &amp; Ivan Bruel, Luka Couffaine &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Kagami Tsurugi, Nino Lahiffe &amp; Ivan Bruel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [34]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666807</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There is a bit of a time jump here; this is about 2 weeks after the concert from <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26771119/chapters/68050747">“Life and Times,”</a> with the rest of the story taking place a week later.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">“You realize we, like, <em>never</em> do this anymore, don’t you, dude?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien looked away from the screen just long enough for Nino’s cart to knock his off the track and into the water hazard. He groaned in frustration as he waited for his character to respawn so he could continue the race. He glared at Nino playfully. “You did that on purpose!”</p><p class="Preference">Nino snorted. “Lucky coincidence,” he insisted, grinning. The music played to signal the end of the race, with Nino as the winner.</p><p class="Preference">“Best fifteen out of twenty-nine.” Adrien pushed the reset button to pick a new track randomly. The two of them were hanging out in Adrien’s room by themselves in the late afternoon of a Friday in early fall, the homework they had assured Marinette and Alya that they would work on together lying strewn on the floor, forgotten. Plagg and Wayzz had vanished in the direction of the kitchen, claiming that they were looking for Russa and Kheaa, the other two active Kwamis at the Mansion currently – though Adrien figured they were more interested in snacks. The girls for their part had gone straight to Marinette’s house after school, along with about half the girls in their class, plus both Adrien’s mother and Sabine. Marinette had bridesmaid dress designs for them to look at as well as measurements to take, and Adrien had no illusions that they would be finished before midnight – Alya had sent them a picture just after they arrived of all the girls just sitting around a table heaped almost to the ceiling with pastries. That meant they had plenty of time to play video games and listen to music on the radio – and they could probably convince the girls to work on homework with them later in the weekend anyways. “What are you talking about, dude?” he asked as the next race began. “We play video games twice a week at least!”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s not what I’m talking about, bro,” Nino replied, dodging Adrien’s attack and taking the early lead. “I’m talking about guy time! With how busy you stay most of the time, I’m pretty sure you only have like three free hours a week, and you spend two-and-a-half of those with Marinette. Most of the time when we hand out, it’s with the girls; this is the first time it’s just the two of <em>us</em> since probably last school year.”</p><p class="Preference">“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Adrien joked, surging past Nino. “I happen to enjoy spending time with my fiancée. It’s why she’s my fiancée!” He narrowly avoided an attack from a computer character to stay in the lead. “Besides, you don’t have much room to talk; I’m pretty sure you and Alya are joined at the hip.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino grinned. “Not my fault I’ve got such an awesome girlfriend.” His cart jumped over three computer characters and almost landed on top of Adrien’s.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien hit the accelerator to stay just ahead of Nino, dropping an oil slick behind him to take out half the competition. “And I’ve got an awesome fiancée. What’s your point?”</p><p class="Preference">“The point is that no matter how awesome our girls are, you’re just too busy and need to take some time to hang with other people – the only people you really see are your mother, your fiancée, and your executive secretary,” Nino told him, avoiding most of the oil but still spinning out. “You’re too busy, my man.”</p><p class="Preference">All by choice,” Adrien insisted. “Since Father, everything on my schedule is there because <em>I</em> want it to be there.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino gave him a look. “You know what they say about ‘all work and no play.’”</p><p class="Preference">“Are you saying I don’t ‘play’ enough?” Adrien asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because Mar and I ‘play’ plenty!”</p><p class="Preference">“Hey, what you and your girl do is your business,” answered Nino, snorting. “But you need more than just fiancée time. You also need to take time to actually hang with the guys. And as your bro, that’s where I come in!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien laughed. “Is Marinette getting the same lecture from Alya right now?”</p><p class="Preference">“What? Of course not!” Nino shook his head adamantly. He smirked. “That won’t be until later, after they’re all done playing dress-up!” He sighed. “You seriously need to let yourself cut loose some, dude. You went from letting your old man run you ragged doing what <em>he</em> wanted you to do right into running <em>yourself</em> ragged doing so much stuff <em>you</em> wanted to do.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien frowned. “I didn’t exactly plan it,” he pointed out. “It just kind of… happened, I guess.”</p><p class="Preference">“Uh huh. Because running a company at seventeen is something that just ‘happens.’ I wish <em>I</em> could have that kind of ‘luck’…”</p><p class="Preference">He shrugged. “Someone needed to do it once Father and Nathalie were both arrested. I couldn’t very well leave our remaining employees in the lurch.”</p><p class="Preference">“Doesn’t mean it has to be you doing everything fulltime, bro.”</p><p class="Preference">“I take time away,” Adrien insisted as his character crossed the finish line first.</p><p class="Preference">“Sleeping time doesn’t actually count as ‘time away.’” Nino scoffed as the song that had been playing on the radio ended and a new one began. He cocked his head to listen. “This sounds familiar,” he mused, tapping his foot to the beat, “but I don’t think I’ve heard it before…”</p><p class="Preference">“That was just a taste of what’s in store from a brand-new superstar musician who will be in Paris for a live concert a week from Saturday!” announced the DJ. “One day only! You don’t want to miss this, people! Come on out to the Place de la Concorde for an absolutely super experience! It is going to be out of this world!”</p><p class="Preference">Nino hummed. “That could be fun,” he commented, giving Adrien an evaluating look. “So when’s the last time you went to a live concert?”</p><p class="Preference">“Two weeks ago.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino snorted. “When’s the last time you went to a live concert you weren’t <em>playing in</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien furrowed his brows in thought. “I… huh.” The last time he had gone to a live concert had probably been the National Music Festival last fall before he rejoined Kitty Section – after listening to them for a while he and Marinette had walked along the Seine a ways to hear all the other performers. But since then… While Marinette had attended the last Jagged Stone concert in Paris, he had missed it because of a last-minute business trip to London. And this year he and Marinette had both been too busy to enjoy the music festival. They had spent most of the summer focused on the Heroes of Paris – first taking out Lynchpin’s drug smuggling operation, then waking up his mother, and then <em>finally</em> working out arrangements with the other Miraculous temples. Unfortunately, because they had been so busy, the winter line had fallen behind schedule and they’d put in a full day working on it during the music festival, leaving Kitty Section to perform without him again. Adrien had at least been able to hear the music drifting through the windows, but that had been it – even lunch they’d eaten inside to continue working through the designs. By the time they had finished everything to Marinette’s and Mme Legrand’s satisfaction, all the music performances had been over for the night. “I guess it’s been a while,” he finally admitted, running a hand through his hair.</p><p class="Preference">“All that’s about to change, dude,” Nino assured him, clapping him on the back. “Your bro’s got you covered. Next weekend.”</p><p class="Preference">“That sounds great and all,” Adrien began, frowning, “but what about–”</p><p class="Preference">“Already taken care of,” interrupted Nino, a mischievous grin on his face. “Your ma’s covering the meeting.”</p><p class="Preference">“You got my <em>mother</em> involved?” Adrien asked in disbelief. He shook his head. “Let me guess: Alya.”</p><p class="Preference">“You know how she gets, man,” Nino confirmed, smiling dreamily. “Sometimes when she gets that fiery look in her eyes, I–”</p><p class="Preference">“–don’t need to know the details,” Adrien finished hurriedly. He reached for his phone. “Should I see if the girls are up for it, too?”</p><p class="Preference">“Nuh uh,” Nino retorted, slapping the phone out of his hand. “This is a guys’ day: no girls allowed!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien stared at him dumbfounded. “What.”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s already arranged, dude! A few of the guys are gonna meet us there for the concert, then we’ll all hang out here after,” Nino explained. “The girls’ll be busy, anyways.”</p><p class="Preference">“Alya again?”</p><p class="Preference">“Alya again,” confirmed Nino.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “What is this? A bachelor party?”</p><p class="Preference">Nino laughed. “Slow down there, dude! You’ve still got plenty of time before that!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">The sun shone brightly in the sky as Adrien walked around the Place de la Concorde the next weekend with Nino and Felix while waiting for the concert to start. Nino had his headphones in, listening to the only song this mystery performer had yet released, while Felix wore a look of extreme disinterest. Adrien stopped in front of a table loaded with posters showing a mysterious figure hidden in dark shadows and fog but surrounded by bright laser lights. The only element of the figure that could plainly be seen was the turntable extending out in front of his chest. A banner behind the booth advertised that a wider variety of designs would be made available after the concert ended.</p><p class="Preference">“So what do you know about this new musician?” Adrien asked, giving Nino a sidelong glance.</p><p class="Preference">Nino shrugged noncommittally. “Nothing, dude. There have been all these cryptic ads and billboards popping up all over the place for a month now, but they haven’t said a thing about who it is.” He stopped, furrowing his brows in concentration. “But something about this song sounds a little familiar…”</p><p class="Preference">“You mean you’ve heard it before?”</p><p class="Preference">Nino shook his head and frowned. “Not that,” he replied. “Or at least, not exactly. I haven’t heard the <em>song</em> before, but the <em>style</em>… he’s got a familiar style.”</p><p class="Preference">Felix scoffed and rolled his eyes. “<em>What</em> ‘style’?” he demanded. “DJing is just taking music someone else wrote and <em>pretending</em> to do something new with it.”</p><p class="Preference">“Are you kidding me, man?” Nino stared at him incredulously. “There is a language to <em>all</em> music; it has its own grammar. With mixing, you can use the music to say anything you want. If you listen enough, you can pick out different DJs by their style.”</p><p class="Preference">“Why would you listen to enough of that to be familiar with the style?” Felix asked rhetorically. “That trash hardly qualifies as music!”</p><p class="Preference">“What’s wrong with it?” asked Adrien in amusement.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, in small doses nothing, I suppose,” Felix admitted, snorting. “But there’s no substance to it.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino grinned. “This coming from the dude who listens to nothing but British Invasion.”</p><p class="Preference">“There is nothing wrong with the Beatles!”</p><p class="Preference">“They’re good,” Nino agreed, “but you seriously need more variety, my man.” He pulled out his phone. “Let me send you a playlist for the train ride back.”</p><p class="Preference">“I’m good with the Stones,” Felix replied. He cocked his head at them. “Though speaking of, remind me <em>why</em> I needed to take the train instead of just walking through the portal like a civilized gentleman?”</p><p class="Preference">Nino laughed. “‘Civilized’?”</p><p class="Preference">“See the police officer over there?” Adrien asked, pointing. “If there were some issue and he realized you were British and asked to see your passport, it would be a little awkward if it didn’t show how you arrived here.”</p><p class="Preference">Felix rolled his eyes. “You lot are such Boy Scouts.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien shook his head in amusement and turned away, his eye immediately drawn to the enormous figure of Ivan, head and shoulders taller than almost anyone else, wading through the crowd in their direction from the far side of the plaza. Adrien’s grin widened and he waved an arm over his head to catch his attention. Ivan turned slightly toward them and waved back, the crowd parting as he passed. Adrien picked up his pace and started in Ivan’s direction, with Nino and Felix in tow. When they met near the center of the plaza, Ivan held up a fist for Adrien to bump. “How’s it going, big guy?”</p><p class="Preference">“Pretty good, little guy!” Ivan answered, smiling.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien chuckled as Luka poked his head out from behind Ivan’s wide back. “Glad you guys could both come!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka smiled and clasped Adrien’s hand, pulling him into a one-arm hug. “After everything that happened this summer, I’d say we all need a break,” he agreed. “And it will be nice to spend an afternoon at a concert <em>we</em> aren’t performing!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded in agreement. All five of them had had a busy summer – starting when Luka’s group took a trip to Le Havre and collected the information the Heroes of Paris had used to stop the Lynchpin’s drug smuggling along the river. On the same trip, he had also found the location for Kitty Section’s first concert outside of Paris, which had happened only three weeks earlier. After all of that, an afternoon together just listening to a new musician would be a nice change of pace.</p><p class="Preference">“So this is your cousin?” Luka asked curiously, looking past Adrien. “Felix, right?”</p><p class="Preference">Felix nodded. “I’m sorry I don’t know either of you, though you look familiar.”</p><p class="Preference">“Aren’t you the one who deleted that video we all made?” Ivan asked, giving him an ominous look, chin jutted out and arms folded.</p><p class="Preference">Felix gaped up at him. “Are you people <em>still</em> mad about that!?!” He demanded incredulously, stepping back a pace. “I–that was three years ago!”</p><p class="Preference">“If it makes you feel any better,” Nino began, raising an eyebrow and grinning, “Alya’s <em>never</em> going to forget about that!”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan cracked his knuckles before a low, rumbling laugh escaped from him. “I’m just messing with you,” he assured Felix, slapping him on the back so hard he stumbled forward and nearly lost his balance.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien stifled a grin on seeing his cousin’s look of discomfort, staring up into Ivan’s face. A part of him could sympathize with Felix: there was a reason they had chosen to give Ivan the Ox Miraculous. On the one hand, Adrien appreciated having Taureau Dechaine along for backup whenever they were expecting trouble – one look at him and most criminals would run away screaming or wet their pants. And yet, for as intimidating as Ivan appeared to be to strangers, he really was the epitome of a “gentle giant” – in that way no different from an ox.</p><p class="Preference">Luka hummed in confusion and stared askance at Adrien. “I thought you said you were practically identical,” he accused, a hint of amusement in his voice, “but you’re nothing alike.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien grinned. “If we wore our hair the same–”</p><p class="Preference">“Not that,” Luka interrupted quickly, chuckling. “You might <em>look</em> alike, but your songs are completely different.”</p><p class="Preference">Felix gave Luka a nonplussed look. “What are you on about?”</p><p class="Preference">Luka hummed a few bars of a peppy melody. “That’s the song I hear from Adrien,” he explained. “But <em>your</em> song…” He hummed a different song, disjointed and modal – to Adrien it sounded perhaps Lydian.</p><p class="Preference">“Luka hears people’s heart-songs,” Adrien told Felix, eyes lighting up in amusement at the confused look Felix wore.</p><p class="Preference">“I’ll take your word for it.” Felix glanced around the plaza at the clusters of people milling around and looking at the displays. “So when is this thing supposed to begin?” he asked, stepping back to put Nino between himself and Ivan.</p><p class="Preference">Luka raised an eyebrow at him and glanced down at his watch. “Not much more than five minutes now,” he replied. “I confess, I’m very curious about this new musician.”</p><p class="Preference">“They’ve put out dozens of different ads and commercials in the last month, and I still have no idea who he is or even really what his music is like,” Ivan agreed with a nod. “Is it <em>all</em> going to be like his first song, or will he have more variety?”</p><p class="Preference">“His ads have gotten a little annoying lately,” Luka observed, frowning. “Kagami’s been fighting for ad space with him since the concert. His ‘out of this world’ campaign has pushed her social media push for the concert live recording release almost entirely out of the spotlight.” He chuckled and smiled fondly.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien patted him on shoulder consolingly. “As far as I can tell, the pre-sales are still better than any of our previous albums, so it can’t be hurting us that badly.”</p><p class="Preference">“I’ve told her as much,” Luka agreed, shaking his head. “Of course, you know she won’t accept anything less than absolute perfection!”</p><p class="Preference">Nino glanced down at his watch. “Any minute now, dudes!” he told them excitedly, drawing Adrien’s attention to the large stage set up on one end of the plaza.</p><p class="Preference">
  <em>Boom!</em>
</p><p class="Preference">A massive explosion erupted directly above the stage. The people standing closest to it fell back on feeling the extreme heat it put out. A few dropped to the ground in surprise. Adrien’s jaw hit the floor as a half-dozen grayish figures approximately two meters tall with long thin necks connecting their stumpy bodies and bulbous heads appeared from a hazy cloud on the stage in a small cluster. Each of the six creatures held a thin rod with its spindly fingers, pointing them in all directions. As Adrien watched, the aliens – they could only <em>be</em> aliens, though Victor had said nothing about a race like this – fanned out around the stage, aiming their rods straight ahead like weapons.</p><p class="Preference">And then the aliens started firing.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien led the others in a race to find shelter behind the statue in the center of the plaza, placing it between them and the ring of aliens. Around them, people were running in all directions to escape, leaving them alone amid a sea of confusion. The aliens, however, appeared to be targeting the stage and merchandise booths rather than the concertgoers.</p><p class="Preference">Nino immediately turned to Adrien, a serious look in his eyes. “What’s the plan, dude?” he demanded, taking a measured step forward, closer to the stage, crouching low behind the statue to watch the aliens around its meager protection.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien narrowed his eyes and slid smoothly into his accustomed Cat Noir persona. This was why he was a hero: to protect people. And while his Lady wasn’t at his side at the moment, he was by no means on his own here – under the circumstances he could do worse than these four. But the others were going to be looking to him. He set his jaw and turned to look at the others, keeping an eye on the confusion around them in his peripheral vision. “Right,” he told them, meeting their eyes with a firm tone in his voice, “we need to stick together and figure out what’s happening.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino gave him a curt nod. Felix shrugged. Ivan and Luka, however, wore doubtful expressions. Ivan furrowed his brows, jaw set in a line. Luka’s eyes trailed to Ivan, a calculating look in his eyes.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien sighed in exasperation. For as much as he and Marinette were in agreement on letting their teammates decide for themselves who and when to tell about their identities, sometimes it could only cause problems. “Guys, we don’t have time for this right now. We’re all wearing the same kind of fancy watches, and I’m pretty sure that by now Plagg has four friends with him in my backpack!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka and Ivan shared a look and shrugged. “I don’t think I even need to ask,” Luka observed wryly, raising an eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">“I had wondered,” agreed Ivan with a low rumbling chuckle.</p><p class="Preference">Felix rolled his eyes. “Somehow, nothing surprises me when <em>you</em>’re concerned anymore, cuz!”</p><p class="Preference">“Okay.” Adrien nodded firmly. “We need somewhere to transform, and now!”</p><p class="Preference">“Pity Alya’s at the spa with the girls,” Nino observed ruefully. “A Mirage would be pretty handy right now!”</p><p class="Preference">“We can handle this ourselves,” Adrien assured him. “Probably. No reason to scare the girls unnecessarily, right?”</p><p class="Preference">Nino nodded. “Worst comes to worst, Marinette can bring the cavalry!”</p><p class="Preference">“There’s a merchandise booth over that way we can hide behind,” Ivan called, pointing to the area furthest from the stage.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded. “Okay, let’s move, gu–”</p><p class="Preference">The order died in Adrien’s throat as the enormous poster behind the stage ripped apart and another figure appeared on the stage through it, hovering in midair and striking a pose similar to that on the posters. The man wore a suit of bright purple with a light yellow mask covering his eyes. His blond hair was swept straight up and back. Adrien could just make out a ring on his finger. A DJ’s turntable hung around his neck on a gold chain and sat near the center of his chest.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien stared at the new figure nonplussed. “What the hell?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>*Something strange happens*</p><p>Adrien: It's okay, we got this</p><p>*Something <em>else</em> strange happens*</p><p>Adrien: Uh... huh.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">As the crowd spread throughout the plaza rushed back away from the battle in a panic, Xtreme tonalitY dropped to land on the stage, one hand resting casually on his turntable, and stared down the six aliens in front of him. Smoke billowed around the plaza from the stands struck by the aliens’ energy weapons. The aliens spun around on their short stubby legs to face him, all their weapons raised and pointed at Xtreme tonalitY’s chest. His eyes narrowed as he sized them up. “You know,” he observed, affecting a tone of casual disdain, his amplified voice carrying throughout the plaza, drowning out the cries of panicked concertgoers. The crowd noises began to quiet as he continued, “I thought I’d seen the last of you fellows when I kicked your asses back in Milan!”</p><p class="Preference">The tallest of the aliens, the top of whose head still only reached the bottom of Xtreme tonalitY’s chin, turned his head to look at the others before waddling slowly forward, his weapon trained on Xtreme tonalitY, and spoke in a loud, clear voice. “Gsrh rh z slzc. Dv ziv mlg ivzo. Gsrh mfgxzhv rh z uizfw.”</p><p class="Preference">Xtreme tonalitY rolled his eyes and laughed derisively, shifting his weight onto one leg and placing his hand on his hip. “You losers should have figured out by now that I don’t speak Lamese!” He flipped a switch on the side of his turntable.</p><p class="Preference">The alien spoke again, and the turntable automatically translated his sound waves into French that reverberated throughout the plaza. “We are the sworn enemies of all melodious sound waves!” the alien declared, clenching its fist and raising it threateningly, its weapon lowering to point at the stage below him. “We are the otherworldly harbingers of the Musical Apocalypse, drawn here by your amazing tunes! We cannot allow your incredibleness to go unchallenged! We will remove all that is harmonious and rhythmic from this world, leaving behind nothing but what is grating and irritating!”</p><p class="Preference">A rumble of conversation ran through the crowd as they paused their attempts to find cover and looked back at the stage. Under his purple mask Xtreme tonalitY raised an eyebrow languidly at the alien and snorted. “That’s not happening! I like Jagged Stone as much as the next guy,” he commented, shaking his head, “but I would hate for his to be the only music left in the Tunepocalypse!” He raised one hand in the air and placed the other casually on his turntable. “And that is not going to happen while <em>I</em>’m here to defend the Earth’s music from you!”</p><p class="Preference">“We will not allow <em>you</em> stand in our way, Defender of Music!” the lead alien declared. He gestured to his companions. “Give us what we want or we will show no mercy! There are six of us and only one of you!”</p><p class="Preference">“What? Do you want to phone home and bring in a few more of your buddies for me to beat up?” Xtreme tonalitY tapped his foot impatiently. “Don’t take too long.”</p><p class="Preference">“We six are the elite of the Atonalien Army!” retorted the lead alien, clenching its weapon tightly, dropping one foot back, and bringing the weapon up to its shoulder, aimed at Xtreme tonalitY’s head. “We need no assistance to eliminate your awesomeness. If you will not stand down, then we will destroy you once and for all! And then we will harvest the Earth’s grooviness to feed our unquenchable thirst for dullness and dreariness!”</p><p class="Preference">Xtreme tonalitY’s lips curled up into a smirk. “Bring it on, bulb-head!” He hit a control on the side of his turntable and the disc started to spin. Xtreme tonalitY scratched it twice, and a sound wave struck the aliens with a concussive blast. All six aliens stumbled backward away from him, and Xtreme tonalitY followed up with a second concussive blast, scratching his disc again and again to set a steady beat. He amped up the bass, sending a sound wave rippling through the stage supports so they vibrated at their resonant frequency. As the stage rumbled beneath his feet, Xtreme tonalitY coiled his legs and sprang into the air to hover a meter above the stage, moving his free hand with the beat as he flew, drawing the crowd’s attention to himself. “Come on, people!” he shouted to the people still milling around near the periphery of the plaza, keeping their distance from the stage, looks of fear and concern on their faces. “Put your hands together to chase away these loser party crashers! We’ll get rid of <em>them</em> and then the <em>real</em> fun can start!”</p><p class="Preference">The crowd clapped, hesitantly at first but slowly gaining enthusiasm as Xtreme tonalitY rose higher into the air, amplifying the volume of his music as he ascended. The aliens turned their heads wildly in all directions, weapons swinging to point every which way, looking both at the crowds and at Xtreme tonalitY. Taking advantage of the aliens’ distraction, he adjusted the gain control on his turntable, latching onto the clapping rhythm and sending rhythmic sound waves at the aliens to keep them off balance. The aliens wobbled back and forth like tops, pinwheeling their arms in a vain attempt to stay on their feet, before they all collapsed to the stage floo0072.</p><p class="Preference">The lead alien landed on his knees, raised his rifle, and fired an energy pulse at Xtreme tonalitY, who spun the turntable’s jog wheel in answer. The energy beam shifted color through the entire spectrum and dispersed into a spray of colored pinpricks that shot up into the air over his head, dispersing in a rainbow above the stage. However, the act of blocking the energy beam stopped the sound waves with which he had been keeping the aliens at bay. In response, all six aliens rose to their feet and began firing at Xtreme tonalitY simultaneously. Xtreme tonalitY poured everything into his song, ramping up the tempo to a fevered pitch, bringing it to a crescendo. Faster and faster the song played, strengthening his shield and deflecting the aliens’ energy blasts, converting them into wild patterns of color that spun and whirled through the air above and around him, wreathing him in a kaleidoscope of lights spanning the spectrum. Xtreme tonalitY bounced his head and arm with the beat, faster and faster as the tempo accelerated, leading the cheering crowd.</p><p class="Preference">“You cannot hold us at bay!” the lead alien declared. “We shall have what we came for!”</p><p class="Preference">Xtreme tonalitY scoffed. “I hate to disappoint a fan,” he retorted, “but I’m only going to give these people the concert they came for; <em>you</em>’re going to be leaving empty-handed!” With that he pressed a button on his turntable. The air around the aliens rippled. “You may be from space, but can you break the sound barrier?” he taunted.</p><p class="Preference">The lead alien fired his energy rifle at the rippling bubble surrounding them, and the energy turned to red and dispersed around the sound barrier. Another alien touched the sound barrier only for his hand to meet resistance. One ran straight at the barrier with a yell and deflected off it, falling backward into the others and falling to the ground. The leader turned to stare at Xtreme tonalitY, loathing in his eyes. “You have not seen the last of us!” he declared, shaking his clenched fist at Xtreme tonalitY. “We will be back to finish what we started!”</p><p class="Preference">“I’ll be waiting for you,” promised Xtreme tonalitY. He started scratching again, and all six aliens raised their hands to cover the sides of their heads, eyes closed in discomfort. As one, the six aliens vanished, and the rippling sound barrier dissipated into nothingness. The crowd surged forward, filling in the plaza and cheering wildly as Xtreme tonalitY dropped down to alight on the stage, raising both hands in triumph. “Next time they should just buy a ticket like everyone else, am I right?” he called, eliciting a relieved laugh from the crowd. He looked around at the damage the aliens had left behind and sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.</p><p class="Preference">“This isn’t exactly how I wanted my first concert to start,” he began, adjusting a couple dials on his turntable. He shifted to the next song and closed his eyes. “But maybe…” He started playing with one hand, waving his other hand for the crowd to join him. “This will take everyone!” he shouted encouragingly.</p><p class="Preference">A wave of sound emanated from Xtreme tonalitY’s turntable, rippling through the air. And as it expanded, everything it touched was restored – better than before. The poster behind the stage reappeared to show Xtreme tonalitY standing front and center, brightly lit and with one hand raised in the same position he currently stood. The booths of merchandise were set back upright, their wares replaced and expanded. The crowd cheered enthusiastically.</p><p class="Preference">“Thank you, thank you all for coming out here this afternoon!” Xtreme tonalitY held his arms out to accept their applause. “Now that this little mess has been taken care of, we can start the <em>real</em> show! So I’m sure you all have a lot of questions about the Atonaliens and why they attacked just now. Well, you will be the first ones to hear this story. Something absolutely out of this world happened to me recently, and I want <em>you</em>, my hometown Paris fans, to be the first to hear about it. These Atonaliens are here to steal our music!” A gasp ran through the crowd. “I know, right!?! But you don’t have to be scared, Paris: my name is Xtreme tonalitY, and I am here to protect the Earth from this threat!” He reached up to take hold of the side of his mask. “My enemies, the Atonaliens, know me as the Defender of the Earth’s Music. But <em>you</em>, my fans, know me–” he whipped the mask off with a flourish “–as XY!”</p><p class="Preference">As the crowd started cheering wildly, he began the concert.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I am not a DJ, but apparently XY is; a turntable is the only musical instrument he’s ever seen playing.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Adrien frowned as he licked his ice cream cone after the concert. It was a nice day: the sun was out, not a cloud in the sky, temperate for early autumn… The company was amazing. While he hung out with Nino on a regular basis, he had spent hardly any time with Felix over the last couple years – the fashion house had just kept him too busy, and even now that he could take a portal to Aunt Amelie’s back sitting room, both he and Felix were busy with school. And as for Luka and Ivan, Adrien couldn’t remember the last time he had spent any time with them by themselves without the girls around or without having Kitty Section business to take care of. Everything about today was amazing… with one major, glaring exception.</p><p class="Preference">“That was some concert, huh?” Nino commented, finishing off his own ice cream before everyone else.</p><p class="Preference">“Everything about that was positively insane,” Felix replied, shaking his head. “I mean, <em>aliens</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s happened before,” Adrien pointed out. “You’ve seen the alien pod at Headquarters.”</p><p class="Preference">“Well, yeah, but that’s hardware, not a living, breathing being!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien chuckled. “There are already a couple aliens in Paris – one of them is living at the Mansion!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka furrowed his brows in thought. “What has Victor said about these – what did he call them?”</p><p class="Preference">“Nothing,” Adrien replied, frowning. “Though we haven’t exactly pressed him for information on more than just the Shunjar and his own people – they were the only two we knew about or thought we had to worry about right now.”</p><p class="Preference">“We might want to correct that,” Ivan observed, raising an eyebrow. “Even just having a list o the different species of aliens out there that might stop in for a visit would be nice.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded. They should have thought about that much sooner. “But despite that insanity, the concert was fun once it actually started.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino shrugged. “Yeah, the music was pretty good, at least by XY’s standards.”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan hummed noncommittally. “It was okay,” he allowed.</p><p class="Preference">“I kind of thought it was a little derivative,” Luka argued. “It sounded a little too much like some of Jagged Stone’s songs from a couple years ago. ‘Super to the Xtreme’ sounded exactly like a version of ‘A Paris Ladybug’ but with a different cadence.”</p><p class="Preference">“Now that you mention it, the drum line for ‘Super Tonez’ was virtually identical to one of <em>our</em> songs,” Ivan added, giving Luka a raised eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">Luka shook his head. “Why should it surprise us that XY is copying our music again…”</p><p class="Preference">“You lot and your ‘popular’ music,” Felix scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It shouldn’t be surprising that it sounds like other people’s music – there’s nothing original to any of it!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka and Ivan both gave him scandalized looks. Felix stepped back, placing Adrien between him and them on catching sight of Ivan’s narrowed eyes.</p><p class="Preference">“There’s good popular music,” retorted Adrien, raising an eyebrow at Felix pointedly. “Just because <em>you</em> don’t like it doesn’t make it bad.”</p><p class="Preference">“Keep telling yourself that, cuz.” Felix shook his head in amusement. “But why does it seem like every time I’m near you people, something absolutely insane happens?” he asked rhetorically.</p><p class="Preference">“I have no idea what you mean,” Adrien replied, smirking.</p><p class="Preference">“Sure you don’t.” Felix snorted. “And I suppose you expect me to just <em>forget</em> that the last time we hung out we ended up in Tibet fighting a monster that eats Kwamis!”</p><p class="Preference">“Hey, that’s only happened once!”</p><p class="Preference">Felix gave him a deadpan look. “So far…” He looked Ivan and Luka down and shook his head ruefully. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that everyone you know is a superhero.”</p><p class="Preference">Luka hummed quietly. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were a hero before now, Ivan,” he observed, punching the big guy in the arm.</p><p class="Preference">“Likewise,” agreed Ivan, nodding. “Although I admit I suspected it last spring.” Luka raised an eyebrow in an invitation to continue, and Ivan explained, “After Chloe: Mylène and I both noticed that Kitty Section seemed off.” He chuckled. “We knew why <em>we</em> were a little out of it, but we could only guess if that also accounted for everyone else.” He laughed. “I suppose, now that I know half the band is heroes and must have been worried about Chloe, that only makes sense!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien glanced over and found Luka looking at him, amusement dancing in his eyes. Adrien smirked, stifling a laugh: it was actually a little <em>more</em> than just <em>half</em> of Kitty Section who were Heroes of Paris! Though at the moment they could keep Juleka’s and Rose’s identities secret.</p><p class="Preference">Luka smiled. “So obviously Mylène must be Multiplice.”</p><p class="Preference">“And Kagami is Ryoku,” Ivan added, nodding. “Your ‘Heart of the Storm’ song being dedicated to Kagami makes so much more sense now! She really <em>did</em> ‘blow into your life and sweep you off your feet like a bolt from the blue’!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka’s cheeks reddened. “So I suppose you’re going to tell Mylène?”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan shrugged. “If that’s all right. We don’t exactly have secrets from each other…”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s why Mylène knew who Marinette and I were so soon!” Adrien supplied, grinning.</p><p class="Preference">“Hey, I at least waited until she had a miraculous first!” Ivan protested sheepishly.</p><p class="Preference">“We weren’t upset,” Adrien assured him, patting his arm. “We decided it was okay for our teammates to know after father outed me to you.”</p><p class="Preference">“No, that’s good that you tell your love everything,” Luka agreed, putting a hand on Ivan’s back. “That way I don’t feel bad about telling Kagami! It’s not like <em>we</em> keep things from each other, either.”</p><p class="Preference">“Honesty is usually the best policy,” Nino advised with a nod. “Especially with your girls being heroes already.”</p><p class="Preference">“And of course Alya is Rena Rouge,” Ivan observed wryly, giving Nino an evaluating look. “That one should have been obvious: there’s no one else Marinette would have trusted with a miraculous more!”</p><p class="Preference">“So does literally everyone you know have a miraculous?” demanded Felix, staring at Adrien in disbelief.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien shrugged. “Not <em>everyone</em>,” he objected, laughing. “Just most of them!”</p><p class="Preference">Felix gave him a deadpan look. “I’ll attempt to contain my shock.”</p><p class="Preference">“A couple are heroes without miraculous,” Nino supplied. “Chloe, for one.”</p><p class="Preference">“Well, one thing’s for certain,” Ivan observed, raising an eyebrow in amusement. “That concert was a whole lot safer than I thought it was! I’m just glad <em>we</em> didn’t need to do anything about those aliens.”</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah…” Nino’s voice trailed off. “Alya still hasn’t let go of the last time she met an alien and had to stop an alien invasion.”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s okay; I don’t think Marinette has let go of it, either!” Adrien joked, though without any humor behind it. “We <em>had</em> thought the alien invasions wouldn’t happen for a few more years yet.”</p><p class="Preference">“Information that you only <em>just</em> decided to share with the rest of us…” Nino noted, giving him a look.</p><p class="Preference">Felix snorted. “What was that about ‘honesty’?”</p><p class="Preference">“Would you have believed us if we’d told you a year ago?” Adrien asked pointedly. “Back then we didn’t know anything about other miraculous sets, or about Dark Acolytes, or about aliens, <em>or</em> about magic. And Old-Chloe was very clear about the future we saw <em>not</em> necessarily being the same one we would experience in our timeline. Things are already different between the two – from what she said, the Dark Acolytes didn’t show themselves in the other timeline until seven years from now, but we’ve already encountered them. We hoped the alien invasions would be like that: something that just didn’t happen or happened entirely differently.”</p><p class="Preference">“If we’d known, there’s no way the rest of us would have decided to help Hugo without running it by you first, dude,” Nino told him. “We just figured getting the alien back to his people would be a good thing.”</p><p class="Preference">“You had your reasons for keeping it to yourselves,” Luka interjected, putting a hand each on Adrien’s and Nino’s shoulders. “But I think we can agree that even knowing it was a possibility sooner would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded in acquiescence. “We’ve told you everything we know.” <em>At least the big things</em>, he added mentally; he and Marinette had decided they didn’t need to know exactly <em>who</em> they had been brought to the future to fight! They had defeated CBN – Adrien had Cataclysmed him personally – and he had resolved never to allow himself to become CBN. That was enough.</p><p class="Preference">“Remind me again why <em>alien invasion</em> is now a part of our normal vocabulary…” Felix grumbled sourly.</p><p class="Preference">“Because you have a collar attached to a tiny dog who gives you superpowers?” Adrien asked. Felix gave him an annoyed look.</p><p class="Preference">“I wish we’d gotten a better look at those aliens,” Nino complained.</p><p class="Preference">“Something did seem a little off about them,” Luka observed slowly, cocking his head to one side and frowning.</p><p class="Preference">“If they come back, we’ll probably get a closer look than we’d ever want,” Ivan reminded him. “As it is, I’m glad XY was able to handle them so we didn’t have to do anything.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien hummed contemplatively. “That is one revelation I could have done without today,” he began. “XY is a superhero.”</p><p class="Preference">Luka shook his head, a look of irritation on his face. “No, he isn’t,” he retorted. “XY <em>may</em> have superpowers now, but that doesn’t make him a hero. After all, just having superpowers doesn’t negate the fact that he’s such a terrible person!”</p><p class="Preference">Felix made a noise between a scoff and a snort. “That doesn’t mean anything. You can be a prat and still make a good superhero,” he pointed out, arching an eyebrow at Luka in challenge. “The two are not mutually exclusive.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien fought to control his face, resisting the urge to laugh. “That is a fair point,” he admitted diplomatically, once he could do so without cracking up. He gave his cousin a hard look. “But there is a higher bar to cross in <em>becoming</em> a superhero for someone who isn’t naturally inclined toward helping other people.”</p><p class="Preference">Felix gave him a dirty look.</p><p class="Preference">“My concern,” Adrien went on, looking back at the others and ignoring Felix, “is with how casually XY treated his secret identity: using it to just to promote himself? Unmasking himself on stage? Does he have any idea the danger he put himself in?”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan shrugged. “It worked pretty well for Chloe when she announced to the world that she was Queen Bee five minutes after receiving her miraculous,” he pointed out. “She received all the accolades of being a hero, <em>and</em> got to continue being a hero.”</p><p class="Preference">“Well, she didn’t exactly <em>receive</em> the miraculous that time,” Adrien grumbled. He shook his head fondly. “Though for <em>her</em> it actually pushed her to become a better person. Maybe it can do that for XY, too.”</p><p class="Preference">Nino hummed, a troubled look in his eyes. “You know, it didn’t work out <em>so</em> great for Chloe in the end,” he noted. “After all, the only reason Lynchpin was able to target her, abduct her, and torture her was <em>because</em> everyone already knew her identity. If she hadn’t made her identity public knowledge, he wouldn’t have been able to target her so directly.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s eyes shot wide. “Dammit!” He slapped his forehead. Around him the others gave him a look of shock. “XY doesn’t know that!” he explained hurriedly. “When we allowed Alya to reveal Killer Bee’s existence last month, we didn’t explain <em>how</em> it happened that Chloe lost her miraculous! So XY doesn’t know what happened to her because her identity was known!” He turned and set a brisk pace across the plaza, the other four hustling to keep up with him. “Come on! We need to go and make a house call…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Night Bat’s office in Lynchpin’s headquarters building wasn’t much: windowless and sparsely furnished beyond his desk and (admittedly comfortable) high-backed chair. A small number of wooden chairs sat on the opposite side of the desk for those unfortunate enough to require his… correction. There were no light sources in the room; he controlled all the light and could illuminate or plunge into darkness whomever he wished. At the moment, all the light in the room was directed at one of the three men sitting across from him. Night Bat kept his face utterly impassive, his lips turned down into just a hint of a frown. When Pol Pot had seen that face, he had immediately snapped to attention. The man in question, Antoine, gulped audibly under Night Bat’s withering stare, though without turning away. Night Bat withdrew a newspaper from his top desk drawer and carefully laid it out on the desk between them. “Would you care to explain this?” he asked pointedly.</p><p class="Preference">Antoine leaned forward for a closer look at the newspaper, which showed a picture of Mecha-Man standing in the middle of a smoke-filled street and facing off against two figures, one of which was clearly a miraculous user holding a dog leash and the other of which wore a very similar armored exo-suit. “Which part specifically?” he answered evasively, pushing the paper away and sitting back in his chair, fixing his eyes back on Night Bat.</p><p class="Preference">“I am of course interested in these two,” Night Bat replied, indicating the two heroes with a dismissive wave. “It is important for us to know our enemies, particularly when they continue to grow more numerous – and even more when they appear to be using technology similar to your own. But I am – or I should say <em>your employer</em> is – more interested in what <em>you</em> were doing in London last month.”</p><p class="Preference">Antoine gave a noncommittal shrug, the tiniest dilation of his pupils the only indication of his rising fear. “Given that after the setbacks along the Seine you had told us that Lynchpin’s operations were taking an extended hiatus, we found ourselves with a good deal of extra time on our hands. After losing the last suit we were left with just enough supplies to put together a rough version of a suit. And rather than wait and hope Lynchpin would eventually have the funds for it, we thought we would self-fund the new armor on our own initiative. Leaving France seemed like the best option, and England was fairly close. We had hoped to avoid heroes and avoid headlines, but–”</p><p class="Preference">“But unfortunately you miscalculated on both counts,” Night Bat finished, eyes narrowing and mouth setting into a thin line. “How do you explain this other mechanized suit?”</p><p class="Preference">“I… can’t,” admitted Antoine, frowning. “The Heroes of Paris have captured two versions of the Mecha-Man suit, and they aren’t stupid–” Night Bat raised an eyebrow. “They have intelligent people on their side, also,” Antoine reminded him. “They <em>could</em> construct their own suit from our model. But despite some similarities, this suit clearly is not a simple copy of Mecha-Man; whoever designed it has streamlined it significantly. It may have taken inspiration from Mecha-Man, but that is it.”</p><p class="Preference">“So you had nothing to do with it?”</p><p class="Preference">“Absolutely not!” Antoine insisted adamantly.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat hummed pensively, and Antoine gulped. Finally Night Bat nodded. “Be that as it may, Lynchpin is a little… <em>concerned</em>… that you and your partner might not be as loyal to him as he would hope, given the trust he placed in you by putting you in charge of his technological innovations and giving you the tools and resources to build that suit.”</p><p class="Preference">“We are <em>exactly</em> as loyal as he pays us to be!” protested Antoine. Next to him the Prior scoffed, and Antoine shot him an annoyed look. “We don’t all have the ‘luxury’ of <em>your</em> resources,” he pointed out. “After all, some of us actually have families that like having such luxuries as food and electricity!” He turned back to Night Bat. “When Lynchpin can’t pay us, our families can go hungry. When he doesn’t have money, we don’t have a suit. So we solved both of those problems on our own. And now that you have need for us again, we’re back with a fully-functional suit – even better than the one we lost over the summer. Whereas if we had just sat on our thumbs waiting for you to call, we’d have to make do with a pile of rusted scraps right now instead of the Mecha-Man 3.0 suit we have.”</p><p class="Preference">“And all you had to do to get it was tangle with a miraculous user,” the Prior observed appreciatively. “I should be thanking you for drawing the miraculous user out. Now that we know of one operating in London, my people can take steps against a lone user more effectively than against the Paris group.”</p><p class="Preference">“And any success your people see in London will be delivered to me?” Night Bat asked the Prior.</p><p class="Preference">The Prior hesitated, eyes narrowed in a calculating look. Night Bat cleared his throat pointedly. “Yes, fine,” he acquiesced. “What are ‘allies’ for?”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat nodded and turned back to Antoine. “I suppose I cannot fault you for your initiative,” he acknowledged slowly. “I cannot argue with the results. If you had <em>failed</em>, it would be a different story; as it is, your resourcefulness is commendable. But see to it that you do not take such initiative again in the future and fail…”</p><p class="Preference">“As long as Lynchpin has the money to keep our families off the streets, we’re his,” Antoine assured him, shoulders sagging in relief.</p><p class="Preference">“Fortunately, monetary concerns should not trouble us again,” Night Bat told him, turning to fix his eyes on the last man in the office. “Your people are on board?”</p><p class="Preference">Andretti nodded reluctantly. Night Bat narrowed his eyes, and Andretti flinched. “Yes, sir,” he quickly assured him, his voice taking a higher pitch. “There was some… resistance at first when I gave them their new instructions, but they are coming around.”</p><p class="Preference">“And you understand what is expected of you?”</p><p class="Preference">“Yes, but…” Andretti frowned unhappily. “I just don’t know if what you want is possible,” he objected. “I do not have the manpower – not after you people eliminated half by distribution network.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat raised an eyebrow. “Do you truly think we were interested in you for your <em>distribution</em> network? Lynchpin has more than enough dealers; what he wanted you for was the import infrastructure – which we left mercifully intact. You <em>should</em> count yourself fortunate that Lynchpin elected to place you in charge of his <em>own</em> operation instead of leaving you with your little fiefdom.”</p><p class="Preference">Andretti glared at him. “I’ll try to contain my enthusiasm,” he retorted bitterly. Night Bat’s eyes narrowed. Andretti quickly added, “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. But… we’ve never been set up to move as much product as Lynchpin demands – not at once!”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat’s eyes flashed dangerously. “If it is not possible, then you know the consequences.” Andretti paled. Night Bat smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Which of your children are you willing to lose <em>first</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">Andretti’s eyes widened and his breathing hitched. “I swear,” he insisted. “I will not disappoint you.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat raised an eyebrow. “That is what I thought.”</p><p class="Preference">The Prior scoffed. “I wish all miraculous users were as easy to cow,” he observed.</p><p class="Preference">“The only miraculous users you need concern yourself with are the Heroes of Paris and their allies,” Night Bat reminded him darkly.</p><p class="Preference">The Prior rolled his eyes. “Of course. Our focus is entirely on our enemies.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat’s nose flared. “I’m sure.” This one could prove… problematic. But Night Bat had dealt with “problematic” would-be allies in the past – they all came around… eventually. “We do need to be prepared for these miraculous ‘heroes’,” he continued. He gave the Prior a pointed look. “Your people have proven less effective than you claimed.”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>We</em> were able to succeed against the British miraculous user,” Antoine noted.</p><p class="Preference">The Prior laughed derisively. “Your mechanical suit fought and defeated a miraculous user on its own, without <em>our</em> help?” he sneered.</p><p class="Preference">“We didn’t exactly <em>defeat</em> the miraculous user,” Antoine replied evenly, “but we were able to hold him off – even without your fancy anti-miraculous weapons.”</p><p class="Preference">“So I see,” observed the Prior. “And all it took was threatening to blow up half of London.” He shrugged and gave Antoine an approving look. “I did not think that you had such extreme psychological tactics in you, effective though they were!”</p><p class="Preference">Antoine frowned. “Using their innate goodness against them in such a barbaric fashion isn’t exactly my <em>first</em> option for fighting miraculous users,” he ground out acidly. “I would much rather us be able to target them and fight them directly – something we <em>can</em> do with the suit’s augmented strength and speed but which we can<em>not</em> do as effectively when you hoard the tools that can specifically counter their abilities.”</p><p class="Preference">The Prior shrugged. “I can see to it that you have a supply of chi-putty and bolas – if, that is, you can find a way to use them.”</p><p class="Preference">“You already know how well we can use them,” retorted Antoine as the office door burst open and a young man ran in.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat eyed the newcomer in irritation. “I trust that you have a good excuse for this interruption, Eric,” he told him, his lips drawn into a thin line. He gained some small satisfaction from seeing the slight widening in Antoine’s eyes at his own reaction. Andretti flinched. The Prior and Antoine turned to face Eric.</p><p class="Preference">Eric gulped audibly, his mouth working uselessly as he tried to form words.</p><p class="Preference">“Spit it out, child,” instructed Night Bat. “Else I will put you right back out on the street – perhaps in pieces.”</p><p class="Preference">Eric cleared his throat awkwardly and snapped to attention. “Yes, sir. I was listening to the radio – it was supposed to be a concert by some new musician – and I think you’ll be interested in him.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat raised an eyebrow dubiously. “I lost my interest in so-called ‘popular music’ after Wagner died.”</p><p class="Preference">Eric smirked. “I think you will make an exception in this case,” he replied. “It’s XY.”</p><p class="Preference">“XY?” repeated Antoine in bemusement, shaking his head. “He isn’t exactly a <em>new</em> musician… My daughter used to listen to him in lycée – before she developed better taste!”</p><p class="Preference">“Did XY have superpowers back then?” Eric shot back, raising an eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat cocked his head and sat back in surprise. “Superpowers, you say?”</p><p class="Preference">Eric nodded adamantly. “According to the radio, a bunch of aliens showed up as the concert was starting, and XY – Xtreme tonalitY, he called himself – fought them off singlehandedly. He didn’t use a mech-suit or a gun. In fact, the way the radio described it sounded positively… <em>miraculous</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat furrowed his brows in contemplation. “I see…” They had missed out the last time a super-powered individual had appeared on the scene – Killer Bee had been chased off by Sent-Bee and failed to secure that particular person for their side. The man who now called himself Amun-Vatar had instead joined the Heroes of Paris, giving them what appeared to be a potent weapon. Allowing another failure of that magnitude would be unacceptable. “You did well to bring this situation to my attention,” Night Bat finally told Eric, giving him a thin smile. “We must look into this, and at once. If he will join us, well and good. But we cannot allow this ‘Xtreme tonalitY’ to join the Heroes of Paris” Turning to the three men in front of him he instructed Antoine, “Prep your suit. And see to it that it is fitted out with the proper anti-miraculous weapons.” He gave the Prior a hard look. “Meet me by the entrance in no more than fifteen minutes.”</p><p class="Preference">Andretti swallowed heavily. “If you do not need me, I will return to my headquarters.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat shook his head, a malicious look on his face. “Not so fast. <em>You</em> are going to come with us. I am… <em>curious</em> to see what you can do.”</p><p class="Preference">As Andretti inclined his head and followed Antoine and the Prior out the door, Night Bat withdrew the phone from his pocket and found the first number. Looking up he found Eric still looking at him. “Leave me now,” he ordered him. Nodding to the headband on Eric’s head, he added, “You will have an opportunity to put that to the test today, I think.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">XY lounged, draped lazily across the long couch in his penthouse suite near the top floor of Le Grand Paris. He popped the cap on a soda can and downed half of it in one swig. The day’s concert had gone surprisingly well, all things considered – the crowd had been crazy. His father sat in the armchair across the coffee table from him, talking through the numbers from the concert.</p><p class="Preference">“As you can see,” his father noted, pointing to something on his phone, “ticket sales were almost as high as your last concert, even without your name attached. And sales of merchandise skyrocketed the moment you stepped on the stage!”</p><p class="Preference">XY scoffed and selected another pastry from the tray on the end table next to him. “For the last time, Pop, I don’t care about the raw numbers. I just want to know the people still care more for me than Stone!”</p><p class="Preference">His father snorted. “After today? You can count on it! Jagged Stone may have some songs <em>about</em> the heroes, but <em>he</em> can’t claim to be a genuine super-powered hero!”</p><p class="Preference">“Good.” XY jumped on hearing a knocking from the balcony door and looked out to see no less than five figures standing on the balcony: Cat Noir, Carapace, and three others whose names he didn’t care to try remembering. What were the Heroes of Paris doing here? XY sat up straight on the couch, placed his feet on the floor, and waved for them to enter. Cat Noir deftly slid one claw through the space between the balcony doors and disengaged the lock before pushing the doors open and stepping inside, followed by the others. “Can I help you?” asked XY, putting on a show of confidence. “Perhaps you gentlemen would like an autograph?”</p><p class="Preference">Carapace frowned in contemplation, but one look at Cat Noir’s face and XY quailed. “So where do your powers come from?” asked Cat Noir abruptly.</p><p class="Preference">“Good news travels fast,” XY observed, raising a languid eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">“Did you honestly think we <em>wouldn’t</em> hear about an alien invasion in the middle of Paris?” the dog hero – the Hound, he thought – demanded incredulously. “Or did you think we wouldn’t <em>care</em> about a new hero showing up in Paris? Because the answer to both questions is ‘Are you out of your goddamn mind?’”</p><p class="Preference">The big hero in blue with ox horns – Taureau Dechaine – folded his arms and fixed XY with an ominous stare. “Whatever is going on here, you need to work with us,” he told XY, his voice oddly calm for one so imposing.</p><p class="Preference">“We know what happened at your concert today,” Carapace explained. “We need you to tell us what’s going on before these aliens return – assuming that they are going to return.”</p><p class="Preference">XY shrugged. “You may as well have a seat.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir and Viperion claimed the couch across from XY, Cat Noir leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and staring intently into XY’s face while Viperion sat back against the arm of the couch. Carapace and the Hound both grabbed chairs from the kitchenette. The Hound placed his right next to XY’s father, who shied away from him with a look of disgust on his face. Taureau Dechaine, meanwhile, folded his arms and remained next to the balcony door, his eyes straying outside every couple minutes. Cat Noir fixed XY with a serious look. “So what’s the deal?”</p><p class="Preference">With a sigh, XY began to speak – he’d practiced telling it so many times it almost came as second nature. “It all started over the summer, when I was at my tour stop along the French Riviera,” he explained.</p><p class="Preference">“It was the day after the concert in Monaco,” his father added, spreading his arms wide in his enthusiasm and grinning wide. “Best concert of the tour! Headlines across Europe! We couldn’t keep merchandise in stock!”</p><p class="Preference">XY flashed his father an annoyed look. “It’s <em>my</em> story, Pop!” When his father sat back in his chair with a huff, XY continued. “It was late and I was relaxing in my hotel room.” He smiled at the memory: <em>Monaco… the groupies were especially… </em>enthusiastic<em> that night. What was that one’s name? Carol?</em> He cleared his throat. “I saw a light streak across the sky. I thought it was a meteorite at first, but then it came closer. It went over the hotel so close I could almost have reached out and touched it. Then it splashed down into the ocean along the hotel’s private beach. I went down to the beach to see what it was, and I found a damaged pod of some sort.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir and Carapace shared a look. “Describe the pod,” Cat Noir ordered, schooling his expression.</p><p class="Preference">XY shrugged. “It was a pod,” he replied. “Sort of white with funny markings. Conical on the top. I wasn’t as interested in the pod as in the opening <em>in</em> the pod – or more specifically in what I saw coming <em>out</em> of that opening.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir frowned but gestured for him to continue.</p><p class="Preference">“It was an alien,” he explained, playing with the ring on his finger. “He said that he’d been attacked and was dying. He pulled the ring off his hand and said that only someone truly worthy of the ring’s power would have left their room in the middle of the night to go and investigate his crash. He said that the ring had thus chosen <em>me</em> to be its new user. The alien handed me his ring and made me vow to use it to stop the Atonaliens. So that’s what I promised to do. No sooner had he given me the ring than he died and both his body and his pod were claimed by the sea.”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound raised an eyebrow. “Convenient that you don’t have anything but your word to prove your story.”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s what happened,” XY defended.</p><p class="Preference">“Pegasus can get down to Monaco and check up on it easily enough,” Cat Noir pointed out, holding a hand up to cut off the Hound’s protest. “And he probably should go and bring the pod back anyways; we don’t want alien tech just lying around where <em>anyone</em> can get their hands on it.”</p><p class="Preference">“Or anyone <em>else</em>,” added Viperion, with an evaluating look in XY’s direction. He turned to Cat Noir. “But is the story even possible?”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I suppose anything is possible, though Victor didn’t say anything about these Atonaliens or what they are <em>or</em> why they would be interested in Earth – he hasn’t mentioned <em>any</em> other alien races with an interest in Earth, for that matter.” He hummed. “I wish we had brought Victor with us for this… we’ll just have to check with him later.” He fixed his eyes on XY, who swallowed hard. “What do you actually know about these Atonaliens? Or about the alien who gave you this ring?”</p><p class="Preference">XY furrowed his brows. “Not much,” he answered, shaking his head. “The Atonaliens showed in Monaco after I received the ring, and since then I’ve caught glimpses of them wherever I’ve had concerts. That’s all I know about them.”</p><p class="Preference">“So they seem to be drawn to you?” Viperion asked quickly, brows knitted in concern.</p><p class="Preference">XY shrugged noncommittally. “So it would seem.”</p><p class="Preference">Viperion frowned. “That’s a little disconcerting, don’t you think?”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir frowned and leaned forward to get a better look at XY’s ring. XY pulled his hand back slightly. Cat Noir asked, “Is that a miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">XY shook his head. “No miraculous here,” he replied. “I’m pretty sure it’s just some sort of advanced tech that allows me to control sound waves and convert them to and from other forms of energy. I channel it through my turntable.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir shared a look with the others, and XY narrowed his eyes suspiciously, clenching his fist around the ring. “I wish you had approached us with all of this, as soon as this alien gifted you this power,” Cat Noir finally told him. XY cocked his head in surprise. “You need to be a lot more careful,” Cat Noir explained. “People could have been killed today when the Atonaliens attacked. And since you just told the whole world your identity, you and your friends and family could be in danger now! They could even target your father to get to you!”</p><p class="Preference">Viperion let out a snort that turned into a cough.</p><p class="Preference">XY scoffed. “What danger?” he asked rhetorically. “It sounds a little hypocritical for you to tell me off for letting people know who I am. After all, Queen Bee never hid.”</p><p class="Preference">“Queen Bee paid dearly for that mistake – and put the rest of us in danger – on several occasions because the bad guys knew her identity and targeted her directly,” Carapace countered, a firm set to his jaw. “There’s a reason we keep our identities hidden and try to avoid notice – particularly with our civilian identities.”</p><p class="Preference">“What about Jagged Stone?” demanded XY, shaking his head in disbelief. “<em>He</em> gets all kinds of attention for his so-called ‘heroics’.” He made a disgusted face. “He’s got more hero-themed songs and costumes than there are heroes, and you don’t say anything to <em>him</em>! Hell, he even goes out on ‘patrols’ with you hero-types! <em>And</em> you’ve been in his music videos! <em>He</em>’s good enough for you but <em>I</em>’m not?” he spat.</p><p class="Preference">The Hound arched an eyebrow at Cat Noir. “He has a point there, you know…”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir gave the Hound a deadpan look and rubbed his forehead. “Jagged Stone has never claimed to be a hero <em>or</em> to have superpowers,” he explained, fixing his gaze on XY, some annoyance bleeding through into his tone. “And do you want to know <em>why</em> we let him go ‘on patrol’ with the Owl whenever he’s in town? Because that way we can keep an eye on him so he doesn’t get himself into <em>real</em> trouble!”</p><p class="Preference">“And he doesn’t benefit from that?” XY demanded, glaring at Cat Noir. “Everyone knows how close he is to the Heroes of Paris, and everyone adores him for it.”</p><p class="Preference">Taureau Dechaine folded his arms. “It really isn’t right for you to be using your superpowers to sell yourself as a new ‘super-musician’ this way,” he commented. “We don’t become heroes to help ourselves; we become heroes so we can help other people.”</p><p class="Preference">XY raised an eyebrow. “Do you have any idea how hypocritical that sounds?” he demanded. “<em>You yourselves</em> profit off of being superheroes! <em>You</em> license yourselves out for everything from toys to lunchboxes to shirts and even colognes!”</p><p class="Preference">“Seriously? That was one time!” Cat Noir grumbled irritably.</p><p class="Preference">“So why should <em>you</em> be allowed to earn money from being heroes when <em>I</em> can’t?” finished XY triumphantly.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Do you actually think we earn <em>money</em> from any of that!?!”</p><p class="Preference">“Of course you do.” XY scoffed. “I may not be a ‘business genius’ like my old man–” he nodded his head dismissively in his father’s direction “–but that’s how licensing deals work!”</p><p class="Preference">“We don’t see a Euro of that money!” Cat Noir shot back. “Everything we receive for being heroes or for merchandise deals to use our image or likeness goes straight back into the Heroes of Paris, into the equipment and resources we need to keep the city and world safe! Into helping <em>you</em>!”</p><p class="Preference">XY shrugged. “And everything <em>I</em> earn from being a hero goes toward the same cause: helping me.”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound sighed and shook his head in amusement. “It’s your funeral, man.”</p><p class="Preference">“Well as much fun as this has been,” XY’s father began, clearing his throat and standing up, fixing Cat Noir with a withering look, “we do have a schedule here. Now will you leave willingly, or will I have to call security?”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir snorted. “And who <em>pays</em> the hotel security?”</p><p class="Preference">XY’s father drew himself up. “Andre Bourge–” Cat Noir arched an eyebrow, and XY’s father’s eyes widened in realization. “Just leave,” he grumbled.</p><p class="Preference">Once the heroes had left the same way they had arrived, XY flopped back onto the couch, clasping his hands behind his head. “I guess we’re doing something right if they’re interested in me,” he observed.</p><p class="Preference">“I’m going to go see what’s happening with the luggage,” his father announced, striding over to the suite door. He eyed the pizza on the kitchen table with some disgust. “Stay here and don’t get that grease on anything important.”</p><p class="Preference">“Whatever.” The suite door slammed shut, and XY pulled out his phone, idly skimming through the social media coverage of the concert while nibbling at the room service pizza, not really hungry yet. By and large people seemed to have enjoyed the afternoon – he was trending in the searches far higher than Jagged Stone at the moment. However, there were a handful of Tweets from people who had fled from the aliens and not returned. He shrugged – it was their loss if they missed the show. A tapping on the balcony door caught his attention. “What’s the matter, forget your–” He stopped, his jaw hanging open, and felt the greasy pizza run straight through him and into his pants.</p><p class="Preference">Outside the balcony was a man clad in black and grey, floating in the center of what looked like a tornado. Beside him, hovering by means of a jetpack, was a man in a mechanized suit, who held two others in what looked like bathrobes, one in either hand. Three more in colorful outfits stood on the balcony, staring at him.</p><p class="Preference">“Are you going to invite us in?” asked the man in grey, teeth bared, eyeing XY like a slab of meat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">For as large as the penthouse had appeared from the outside, with eight men inside – one of them wearing a metal exo-suit – the suite felt cramped. Night Bat stood in front of the couch, the six men he had brought with him spread out around the room. Mecha-Man had taken a position next to the balcony; Tyran-X leaned against the suite door. The Prior sat ramrod straight on one of the couches. The other three stood in the small penthouse kitchenette.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat looked down at the plate in his hand. “I have traveled the world from one side to the other,” he commented languidly. “I have tasted the food of every culture and seen it develop from the simple fare of my youth to the ‘sophisticated’ cuisine of today. And yet, I have never tasted anything quite like the pizza. A full meal – protein, grain, vegetables – in one dish. And of all the pizzas I have tasted, none of them compare to the original Neapolitan.” He hummed in contemplation and took another bite. “Although New York does come close. Wouldn’t you agree, Elettrisicario?” He turned to the man in question, wearing a light green business suit and leaning against the counter in the small kitchenette.</p><p class="Preference">Elettrisicario eyed the pizza on the counter with some distaste. “Are you <em>sure</em> that’s pizza, sir?” he asked dubiously. “I’ve seen less grease in a would-be gangster’s hair…”</p><p class="Preference">Next to him the Bearator grabbed another piece and shoved half of it into his mouth. “I don’t know,” he argued, his words muffled, licking his fingers. “I really don’t think there’s such a thing as bad pizza.”</p><p class="Preference">“A rather simplistic understanding, though not without merit” Night Bat noted, a hint of amusement in his voice. He examined the slice in his hand dispassionately before discarding it. “Unfortunately this one does not exactly do the pizza justice.” He finally turned to examine the hapless man sitting on the couch in front of him. The man’s face had taken on the same color as his slicked-up blond hair, his eyes wide in fear, sweat standing out on his forehead and soaking through his shirt. An unpleasant stench came from his pants. “What do <em>you</em> think, hero?”</p><p class="Preference">XY coughed nervously, his eyes darting around the room before settling back on Night Bat’s face. Almost immediately he blinked and looked away. Night Bat frowned. “Are you <em>sure</em> this is the superhero you were telling me about?” he asked the Bearator, not taking his eyes off XY.</p><p class="Preference">The Bearator shrugged noncommittally. “He does seem a little underwhelming in person,” he admitted, using one of his hand claws to scratch his scalp between the two small bear ears protruding from his miraculous headband. “But at least according to the radio he fought off an actual, genuine alien invasion.”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>This</em> guy did that?” asked the Prior’s newest protégé, a young man he called “the Deacon.” The Deacon approached XY and examined his face closely. He scoffed. “He doesn’t look like he’s got that kind of fight in him. I really don’t see why we’re even here.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat smiled thinly. “All in good time. This one may not look like much, but neither did Torquemada. Like the pizza comes in different varieties, all with their place, superpowers come in their own varieties. And even if this one isn’t the best vehicle for the superpower, we can always give it to another. But let us see what flavor you bring to the table.” He fixed his eyes on XY, who quailed under the scrutiny. “Tell me, <em>hero</em>, what powers do you possess?”</p><p class="Preference">Mutely XY pointed toward the closet. Night Bat gave the Bearator a pointed look, and the teen stabbed one of his claws into the thin wooden door before ripping it off its hinges and tossing it across the room. Inside the closet, Night Bat could see a garish purple jacket and pants hanging on a hanger, and a plastic box with a strap lying on the floor underneath it. “That is your power?” Night Bat demanded, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. XY nodded. “Put it on.”</p><p class="Preference">XY rose hesitantly from the couch, swallowed heavily, but didn’t move. Night Bat gave him a look and let his hand drift to the pommel of his sword, and XY stumbled backward, caught the back of his knees on the couch, fell backward over it, and scrambled to his feet. Finally he made his way across the suite to the closet. He fumbled while removing the pants from the hanger, so they slipped off and fell to the floor. Once they were on, he took the jacket, but his fingers shook so badly that he couldn’t button it up properly, instead ending up with the buttons mismatched. Once he had finally donned his costume, XY bent down to retrieve the box, which he carefully draped over his neck on its carrying strap.</p><p class="Preference">“Now what kind of pizza are you?” Night Bat murmured to himself, pursing his lips in contemplation. Louder he asked, “Are you a genuine Neapolitan, or are you a grease trap like the one in your kitchen? Do your powers come from magic or from technology? It cannot be a miraculous if you remove it and don it in that fashion.” When he received no response, he gave Mecha-Man a sharp look.</p><p class="Preference">“My scanner isn’t picking up anything – no electromagnetic spectrum, no alien substances – from him <em>or</em> the box,” Mecha-Man reported immediately.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat hummed. “Magic, then.” He turned to XY. “Now what do you do?”</p><p class="Preference">XY quivered in place, his mouth opening and closing without making any sound.</p><p class="Preference">“Such a disappointment,” Night Bat muttered, clucking his tongue. “I see we will have to incite it out of you then.” He examined his men, frowning. “Bearator, Elettrisicario, Deacon, let us see how you fare against this new hero.”</p><p class="Preference">XY’s eyes shot wide as the three selected men stepped forward. The Bearator put his foot on the edge of the coffee table and kicked. The table flew across the room, scattering soda cans and chip bags across the floor, crashed into the opposite wall, and splintered apart. The Deacon circled around behind XY, who shied away from him and back toward the middle of the suite where Night Bat and the others waited. Elettrisicario extended his lightning rod under one of the couches to push it over on its back, creating a small open space in the center of the living room. Without warning the Deacon swung his quarterstaff at XY’s head from behind. At the same moment Elettrisicario sprang forward, aiming a punch at XY’s chest. XY sidestepped to avoid the punch, straight into the whipping quarterstaff. He fell to the ground with a cry of surprise, rubbing the raising welt on his cheek. The Bearator strode forward, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him up to his feet, one hand claw raised to his throat. The middle blade on the hand claw grazed XY’s neck, drawing a drop of blood. XY held up his hands in front of his face protectively as a high-pitched whimper escaped his lips.</p><p class="Preference">As the Bearator tossed XY into Elettrisicario’s arms and ducked the Deacon’s ill-timed punch, Night Bat furrowed his eyebrows and stroked his chin, frowning. This “Xtreme tonalitY” had yet to throw a punch. In fact, he had made no move to defend himself. The three Lynchpin-ions he had chosen were untested, had not fought together before, and had already gotten in each other’s way, yet Xtreme Tonality had not taken advantage of their inexperience. But at the same time, he did not have the look of one who was biding time and allowing his opponents to tire themselves out before his counterattack. “What game are you playing?” Night Bat murmured to himself. He turned away in disgust and strode over to the balcony as Elettrisicario swung his lightning rod at XY’s legs, tripping up both XY and the Deacon. The Deacon rolled to his feet glaring at Elettrisicario, swinging his quarterstaff at Elettrisicario’s head, while XY curled into a ball, blubbering indistinctly. As the three Lynchpin-ions began kicking him in the back, arms, and legs, Night Bat let out a disappointed sigh. “This is not working,” he observed quietly. He raised his voice sharply. “Enough.” His three minions stopped instantly. “Bearator, you said he flew, did you not?”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s what the radio said,” the Bearator reported, jogging over to stand beside Night Bat.</p><p class="Preference">“Well then.” Night Bat gave Elettrisicario a look, and he grabbed XY by the scruff of the neck and dragged him over to the balcony. “Perhaps this will convince you that a demonstration is in your best interests,” Night Bat told him.</p><p class="Preference">XY’s jaw dropped open and his eyes widened in terror. “Wait… what–what are you doing!?!” he shrieked, lips trembling. “I–no–p–please!” “Noooooooo!” he wailed as Elettrisicario grabbed him by the back of his costume with his other hand, held him horizontally, gave a single swing to build momentum, and hurled him over the balcony railing and out away from the building.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat watched impassively as XY dropped out of sight, plummeting downward, falling further away from the building with every meter, screaming his lungs out as he went. <em>This</em> was the hero who had fought off an alien invasion in a matter of minutes? Where was that power now?</p><p class="Preference">“He’s not stopping, boss,” Mecha-Man observed, leaning his head out over the railing to watch XY’s descent.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat sighed and waved a hand. Tyran-X’s lasso shot down the side of the building, racing against gravity, and snagged XY by the ankle, stopping him no more than five meters from the pavement. A wet thud echoed up from XY swinging over at striking the side of the building.</p><p class="Preference">“What now?” asked Tyran-X, giving the lasso a testing tug. A whimper carried up from the end of the rope.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat turned away from the open air of the balcony to examine the hotel room. “Pathetic.”</p><p class="Preference">“We are wasting our time on this one,” the Prior told him.</p><p class="Preference">“Probably,” Night Bat allowed, nodding slowly. “But he could be trying to trick me into letting him go so he can run off to join the Heroes of Paris – a mistake no one has ever made twice. So just in case he really <em>is</em> as powerful as the Bearator suggested, we are going to bring him with us. Perhaps in more… <em>private</em>… surroundings he will be more… forthcoming…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I mean, who <em>hasn’t</em> wanted to throw XY out a window at least once?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">“Your face when Cat Noir said you were all heroes… Priceless!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien chuckled on hearing the amusement in Stompp’s voice. The girls were still out, so the five of them had decided to return to the <em>Liberty</em> after their conversation with Xtreme tonalitY. Luka had picked up his guitar to play a new song while the other four had taken seats around the middle of the deck and the Kwamis had congregated together on the table between them with a plate of snacks. However, despite the food, Plagg and Stompp had not stopped laughing since they had arrived. Adrien could understand their point, of course; Plagg still teased him about the almost-crippling crush on Ladybug that had completely blinded him to Marinette’s matching crush on him – and the fact that the two were the same. For their part, Luka and Ivan still couldn’t stop comparing notes of how they had missed that they were both heroes.</p><p class="Preference">“Now, now,” Sass chided, laying a paw on Stompp’s shoulder. “They chose to respect each other’s privacy before now. We cannot fault them for that.”</p><p class="Preference">“Sass is correct,” Wayzz added, giving Plagg a pointed look. “Cat Noir had to reveal everything under the circumstances; had they attempted to address the situation without knowing they were not alone, it could have been so much worse.”</p><p class="Preference">“You and Sugar Cube,” Plagg grumbled, folding his arms in a pout. “You just have to suck the joy out of everything.”</p><p class="Preference">“I don’t fault them for anything,” insisted Stompp, grinning. “I’m just messing with them. Ivan knows that, right, big guy?” He gave Ivan a wide-eyed look.</p><p class="Preference">Ivan smiled ruefully and held out his fist for the Kwami to bump. “It’s no more than I’ve been thinking this whole time,” he admitted. “Still,” he added, smiling at the group, “I don’t regret knowing that practically all my best friends are also my hero partners!”</p><p class="Preference"><em>Even more than you think…</em> Adrien thought with some amusement, coughing into his hand to mask a snort of laughter. Perhaps they would cross that bridge later; for now, it was a problem for the future.</p><p class="Preference">“You people and your bloody secrets,” Felix muttered, shaking his head. “Is knowing your partner’s name really that important?”</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t you want to know your partner’s name?” asked Adrien in surprise. “I wanted Ladybug to trust me enough to share her identity from the moment I first laid eyes on her!”</p><p class="Preference">Nino snorted. “Smitten,” he joked, elbowing Adrien in the ribs. Adrien grinned back sheepishly.</p><p class="Preference">“I know what I need to know about her,” Felix replied with a shrug, looking away. “I know she’s intelligent and tough. I know she’s kind and cares about other people. I know I trust her.”</p><p class="Preference">“Dude, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were actually connecting with another human being,” Nino observed, raising an eyebrow at Felix. “I’m impressed.”</p><p class="Preference">“Trust is a very valuable commodity,” Luka noted. “It’s so important to trust the people you work with, regardless of whether you know their secret identity.”</p><p class="Preference">“But unfortunately you don’t want <em>everyone</em> knowing that…” Adrien added, frowning.</p><p class="Preference">Nino opened his mouth to respond, but shut it suddenly, a startled look on his face. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened it. “That’s funny,” he said instead, staring at the phone screen. “A guest-submitted video on the Ladyblog.” He handed his phone to Adrien.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien stared at the image on the screen showing a balding man with short white hair, a mustache, and a wild look in his panic-filled eyes. “Why is Bob Roth contacting <em>us</em>?” he wondered.</p><hr/><p>Cat Noir launched off his staff and retracted it to normal staff-length as he landed on the balcony of the Roths’ penthouse suite a couple floors below the roof of Le Grand Paris. He attached the leash end to the railing and waited a moment as the other four clambered up the Hound’s leash to join him. Inside the suite he could see Bob Roth pacing the room from one end to the other, wringing his hands and gesticulating to himself. His normally neat hair was all in disarray, sticking out in all directions and giving him the look of a mad monk. His jacket missing, his shirt was untucked, buttoned wrong, and wrinkled in ways it hadn’t been last time they had been here. Finally he turned and caught sight of the growing group of heroes on the balcony. He flung the door open and pulled Cat Noir inside, who was followed by the other four.</p><p class="Preference">“So what is going on?” Cat Noir demanded, folding his arms as Bob Roth collapsed onto the couch, burying his face in his hands. “You and XY didn’t seem overly interested in what we had to say less than an hour ago; what changed?”</p><p class="Preference">“I–I didn’t know who else to call,” Bob Roth began hesitantly, picking up a glass from the side table. “I–I–I swear I had no idea anything was wrong; he was perfectly fine when I left!”</p><p class="Preference">“What happened?” Carapace asked, stepping up next to Cat Noir. “Start from the beginning.”</p><p class="Preference">“I went downstairs to organize our concert equipment on the tenth floor,” Bob Roth started, his hands shaking so badly he spilled his drink.</p><p class="Preference">The Hound snorted. “I’m sure. Oh, yes, you were ‘organizing’ her ‘concert equipment’ very well…” Viperion elbowed him with a frown, and the Hound fell back across the other couch, a smirk still plastered across his face.</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth glared at them. “I had no idea anything was wrong until Xavier fell screaming past the window!” Cat Noir’s jaw dropped. “I thought he was about to die until a rope shot down after him. I got to the window to see him just dangling by his ankle, swaying in the wind.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir caught Carapace’s eye and they both nodded. “Tyran-X.”</p><p class="Preference">“What’s a ‘Tyran-X’?” Bob Roth wondered, cocking his head in confusion.</p><p class="Preference">“Tyran-X is an evil miraculous user,” Carapace explained, mouth set in a firm line. “Works with a dude that calls himself Night Bat, and they work for this crime boss called the Lynchpin.”</p><p class="Preference">“Tyran-X likes destroying monuments and tourist attractions for fun and making us try to stop him,” Taureau Dechaine added darkly. “One time he nearly brought the Eiffel Tower down with an earthquake.”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>What?</em>” Bob Roth’s jaw dropped and his eyes shifted rapidly between the five heroes. “There’s an evil miraculous user working for a crime boss? Why didn’t you warn us about that!?!”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>We</em> <em>did</em>!” retorted Cat Noir, fire in his eyes. “Remember those dangers we told you about, less than an hour ago? All those terrible things that can happen when the world knows your identity? This is one of them!”</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth started breathing rapidly, blinking repeatedly. “I don’t believe this…” he moaned.</p><p class="Preference">“Where have you been for the six months, dude?” Carapace demanded, a bewildered look on his face. “We’ve been fighting evil miraculous users all over Paris since March!”</p><p class="Preference">“I–um–that is to say–we’ve been on tour!” Bob Roth mumbled, failing to meet the heroes’ eyes.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, pull yourself together, man!” the Hound told him, rolling his eyes. “He didn’t go splat, so what <em>did</em> happen?”</p><p class="Preference">“I–I don’t know,” Bob Roth stuttered. “I saw a bunch of people fly away west, carrying Xavier at the end of that rope. But the strangest thing is that for some reason he was wearing his costume.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir relaxed slightly. “He has his ring and his suit?” Bob Roth nodded mutely. “That’s good. That’s good news. I mean, getting thrown off a building is never <em>fun</em>–” Carapace snorted, and Cat Noir shot him a glare “–I only did it for fun <em>once</em>!” He put a hand on Bob Roth’s shoulder. “It’s not easy, but this just comes with the territory when you’re a hero.”</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth stared at Cat Noir in horror. “This is <em>normal</em> for you people!?!”</p><p class="Preference">“I mean… yeah,” Cat Noir replied, nonplussed. “I got thrown off buildings about twice a week while Hawk Moth was still around; it’s probably happened five or six times since then.” He glanced over at the others.</p><p class="Preference">“Um… probably about a dozen times,” Carapace said, brows knit in concentration.</p><p class="Preference">“Never.” Viperion shook his head. Cat Noir gave him a deadpan look. “Never that I didn’t immediately reset,” Viperion amended.</p><p class="Preference">Taureau Dechaine hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe once or twice. I’m not usually running around on rooftops.”</p><p class="Preference">“You lot are crazy,” the Hound observed wryly. “I’ve never been thrown off a building!”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir raised an eyebrow. “Never?”</p><p class="Preference">“Nope.” The Hound smirked. “It was a bridge. And Iron Maiden’s the one who did it!”</p><p class="Preference">“Well in that case, you probably deserved it.” Cat Noir turned back to Bob Roth. “The point is, as hard as it is to accept, this is part of being a superhero: people will try to hurt you. Even Jagged Stone got himself spun around like a top the first time he went out on ‘patrol.’ Since he was suited up, XY should be able to fend for himself for now – at least until we can figure out where they took hi–.” He stopped suddenly, narrowing his eyes and cocking his head suspiciously. “Wait… he had his suit and powers? Then why didn’t he <em>use</em> them to catch himself when they threw him out the window?”</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth’s face suddenly turned ashen. He grabbed the tufts of hair on either side of his bald spot and tugged. “Oh, no…” he moaned.</p><p class="Preference">“What?” demanded Cat Noir.</p><p class="Preference">The Hound suddenly started laughing uproariously. “Oh, you absolute, bloody <em>wankers</em>!” Cat Noir gave his cousin a dirty look, but he ignored him. “There is no ‘Xtreme tonalitY,’ is there?” the Hound asked, trying and failing to wipe the smug look from his face.</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth shook his head dejectedly.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir’s heart sank into his boots. “You <em>didn’t</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound stopped fighting the smirk and arched an eyebrow. “They did.”</p><p class="Preference">“You mean…” began Carapace, staring at Bob Roth in shock.</p><p class="Preference">“But – who in their right mind would do something so stupid?” wondered Taureau Dechaine, jaw dropping.</p><p class="Preference">The Hound pointed at Bob Roth, a smug look in his eyes.</p><p class="Preference">Viperion shook his head. “No–that’s stupid even by <em>their</em> standards!”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s true,” Bob Roth moaned, turning his face down to examine the carpet under his feet. “Xavier doesn’t have any powers. ‘Xtreme tonalitY’ is just something we came up with to drum up interest in our new ‘XtremelY heroeZ’ Tour.”</p><p class="Preference">Viperion gave a look and stuck out his tongue in disgust. “You realize that’s a terrible name.”</p><p class="Preference">Bob Roth shrugged. “The focus group liked it. Heroes are in right now,” he explained. “Jagged Stone’s last tour was all about you people – he has an entire album <em>and</em> a series of music videos with you – and there’s that new band that’s got a couple songs dedicated to the Heroes of Paris out now, too.” Both Viperion and Taureau Dechaine gave him identical looks of utter disbelief. Cat Noir couldn’t blame them. “So we designed the costume, focus grouped a back story that would make Xavier sufficiently heroic, and choreographed a fight sequence to introduce him. Paris – Europe’s ‘superhero central’ – seemed like the perfect place for Xtreme tonalitY’s ‘debut’ appearance and concert.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir’s jaw dropped further in horror as the story progressed. “And the aliens? The explosions?”</p><p class="Preference">“Holograms and pyrotechnics. He only flies with a wire harness attached under the suit.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir’s eyes darted around the room, taking in the dismayed expressions on his friends’ faces. In front of him Bob Roth’s face still hadn’t regained any color. Cat Noir’s eyes narrowed in building rage. “Are you <em>fucking insane</em>!?!?!” he demanded. He advanced until he stood directly over Bob Roth, glaring down at his bald pate. “Why the <em>hell</em> would you pretend he’s a superhero <em>in a city with actual super-villains!?!?!</em> Have you lost your goddamn mind!?!”</p><p class="Preference">Taureau Dechaine put a hand on Cat Noir’s shoulder, pulling him back. Carapace stepped forward to interpose between Cat Noir and Bob Roth. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen now, sir?” Carapace asked gravely. “Night Bat is serious bad news: he is a functionally-immortal pseudo-vampire who feeds on corrupting people and bringing out the worst aspects of them. He has been behind some of the worst plagues of the last millennium and egged on some of the worst dictators imaginable. He makes Hitler look like a saint. He doesn’t exactly care who he hurts or why. And he thinks XY has superpowers.” Carapace paused, and Bob Roth stared up at them in wide-eyed, jaw-dropped horror.</p><p class="Preference">“So when he finds out that he <em>doesn’t</em> have any powers, he might just kill XY to simplify things,” Cat Noir finished darkly. “Or because he annoyed him.”</p><p class="Preference">“Congratulations,” added Viperion acidly. “Your ‘publicity stunt’ just backfired in the most epic way imaginable.”</p><p class="Preference">“What can we do?” Bob Roth whispered, looking up at them pleadingly.</p><p class="Preference">“<em>We</em> will do nothing,” Cat Noir informed him, gesturing to include all of them. He pointed at the other heroes, all of him wore identical serious faces. “<em>We</em> will go and save him. <em>You</em> will sit here and imagine the consequences of your actions if we get there too late.”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound succeeded in maintaining the same serious face for a moment longer before he suddenly burst out laughing. Cat Noir raised an eyebrow at him. The Hound wiped away a tear and grinned back. “Well, they <em>wanted</em> attention, didn’t they?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">The villains flew across Paris, XY dangling helplessly below them. He couldn’t see who was holding him up, just that someone was carrying the one with the lasso. How did it get to this point? It had all seemed so much simpler a few months ago when his father had seen the sales figures for Jagged Stone’s HeroeZ International Tour. Obviously superheroes were “in” right now, so the best way to boost sales was to jump onto that bandwagon. And what better way to corner the “hero market” than by rebranding as a bona fide hero himself? XY himself had been content to keep going as they were, but Father was the manager, Father knew the business, so Father got to make the decisions.</p><p class="Preference">But, then, Stone pretended to be a hero and the people loved him for it; why couldn’t XY do the same?</p><p class="Preference">Considering how simple it had been to make himself out as a hero – wear a silly costume, put on a good show, and let the fans adore him – it had worked out fairly well for that first concert. The effects had certainly been convincing; even knowing what was going on, XY could almost have believed the “Atonaliens” (such a stupid name) were really there. The social media buzz afterward had been nothing but adoration from fans hoping that Xtreme tonalitY was going to be the new Hero of Paris. And when the Heroes of Paris themselves had shown up in his suite? You couldn’t get any more convincing than to be seen talking to the actual heroes!</p><p class="Preference">In retrospect, aiming for “convincing” might have been a bit of a mistake…</p><p class="Preference">XY was not heroic! And if he hadn’t been pretending to be something he wasn’t, then he wouldn’t be in this position, getting dragged across Paris by the ankle to who knows where by a group of monsters that would probably kill him when they found out he didn’t actually have any of the superpowers he’d claimed to have! Why hadn’t he been content with the fans and fame and fortune that came with being a world-famous musician? Why did he let Father push him into this stupid idea in the first place!?! As XY stared down at the prospect of a 50-meter fall to certain death, hugging his turntable to his chest so it wouldn’t fall off, he promised himself that if he somehow escaped from this situation alive, he would never be a self-centered asshole again.</p><p class="Preference">But escaping from this situation with his life would probably be an issue.</p><p class="Preference">XY had never bothered to learn the layout of Paris; as he flew over the Trocadéro he regretted that decision. The river was to his right, and they were already past the Eiffel Tower. Whoever was holding him up appeared to be making no move to keep him above the trees. He covered his face to avoid a tree branch – even still, the top of the tree brushed through his hair and whipped his cheek, setting him to swaying back and forth as they flew. He twisted slowly around, and suddenly he couldn’t even see where they were going – or the tree that smacked him in the back. In his surprise he let go on his turntable and it fell off. With a cry he reached out and just barely managed to catch the strap with his finger before it was out of reach.</p><p class="Preference">Finally the group of villains gained altitude to fly over the outside wall of a large deserted football stadium and stopped in the very center of the field. After so long suspended upside down, XY couldn’t pull himself up to avoid splatting face-first into the turf when they dropped him the final meter to the ground. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, the turntable hugged tightly to his chest, to find the seven villains arrayed around him in a loose circle.</p><p class="Preference">“You are certain no one will disturb us here?” Night Bat asked, not taking his eyes off XY.</p><p class="Preference">Mecha-Man nodded. “Saint-Germain has a game at Dijon this weekend, so no one should be here – or at least not too many. Maybe a cleaning crew or something.”</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat nodded and fixed XY with a predatory look. “Now we shall see just what there is to this ‘Xtreme tonalitY.’ Will you be an asset to my group, or do you intend to be an enemy?”</p><p class="Preference">The Deacon scoffed. “He doesn’t exactly have that ‘Heroes of Paris’ attitude…”</p><p class="Preference">“At this point, I have to agree,” Mecha-Man added. “We’ve wasted enough time with him.”</p><p class="Preference">“True as that may be, we’ve got him here now,” the Prior pointed out. “So if there really <em>is</em> anything to him, we might as well figure it out. After all, if he does join the Heroes of Paris, he could become a threat to us.”</p><p class="Preference">“Not <em>much</em> of a threat,” Elettrisicario argued, poking XY in the side with his lightning rod. XY couldn’t stifle a whimper.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat hummed contemplatively, brows knit deep in thought. “Perhaps he was intimidated by battling such a large group,” he decided. “Bearator!” The guy in the tan bodysuit stepped forward. “Spar with him.”</p><p class="Preference">XY slid the strap of his turntable over his head, pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, and raised his fists in front of his chest. He had never been much of a fighter, but he did at least understand the basics from his last music video: keep his hands up and don’t break a thumb. The group of villains spread out, creating an open ring about ten meters wide with XY and the Bearator in the middle.</p><p class="Preference">The Bearator narrowed his eyes and dropped into a lower fighting stance, holding a hand claw in his right hand while leaving the other on his belt. “Let’s do this,” he said, stalking forward.</p><p class="Preference">XY slowly backed away. “What do you want with me?” he demanded, not taking his eyes off the Bearator. He bumped into something hard and unyielding, and rough hands pushed him into the center of the circle, back toward the Bearator.</p><p class="Preference">“With <em>you</em>?” The Bearator scoffed, feinting an attack. XY dodged to his right and lost his balance, stumbling and windmilling his arms to avoid falling. The Bearator stalked closer, sidestepping to circle around him predatorily. “I really <em>don’t</em> want anything from you. All I want is something better for my family! Do you have any idea what it’s like to grow up with <em>nothing</em>?” He was less than a meter away from XY when he drove his fist into XY’s gut.</p><p class="Preference">XY jumped as the punch connected, wheezing as the air was knocked from his lungs. He looked up into the cold blue eyes, tried to force air back in, gasping with the effort and cradling his stomach.</p><p class="Preference">“No, of course you don’t know what it’s like,” the Bearator agreed, eyes narrowing. He grabbed XY by the collar and held him up so his feet barely scraped the ground. A hand claw pricked XY’s throat; he felt a trickle of blood run down his chest. “<em>You</em> had everything from birth, didn’t you? <em>You</em> had money. <em>You</em> had privilege. <em>You</em> got a good education. <em>You</em> never had to worry about what you were going to eat.” He pulled him down so their faces were centimeters apart. The turntable dug into XY’s chest, the only thing separating him from the Bearator. His eyes widened in panic he couldn’t hide. He was no more than a centimeter away from death. The Bearator’s lip curled into a snarl. “<em>You</em> never had to deal with drug dealers camping out on your front stoop, did you?”</p><p class="Preference">XY mustered his courage and punched the Bearator in the chest. The Bearator, however, didn’t react; he continued to glare at XY. “Why are you doing this?” XY whispered, eyes wide with panic.</p><p class="Preference">The Bearator shrugged and hurled XY across the circle into Mecha-Man, who caught him in his arms and pushed him back into the ring. “You want to know what <em>I</em> learned from growing up?” the Bearator asked him, eyes flashing with hatred. “You do what you have to do to survive. I didn’t <em>have</em> your opportunities. My father wasn’t a famous music producer; he was a soldier, and he died. A military pension doesn’t go very far, and the best apartment my mom could find is in the bad part of town – you ever been there?” XY stumbled and fell to his hands and knees, his turntable scraping the ground under him. The Bearator loomed over him. “Of course not; you only ever drive through as fast as you can in your chauffeured limo, right? There are drug dealers on the streets. So I could either <em>join</em> the dealers myself or hide inside and wait for my kid brothers to get caught up in the life. Some choice, huh? But maybe, this way, my mom at least has a chance with them.”</p><p class="Preference">There was no way he would get out of here alive! He was going to die in some stupid football stadium because his father thought pretending to be a superhero was a good idea! XY scrambled to his feet and took the LP off his miraculously-undamaged turntable. His father had picked the turntable up from a thrift store to work into the costume as a prop, but at the moment it was about the only friend XY had. He shifted his stance and threw the disk at the Bearator, who raised his hand claw and almost casually batted it away into the ground at his feet before stepping on it and shattering it. XY swung the turntable around to one side and ran at the Bearator with a yell. Feinting a punch he kicked the Bearator in the knee, but the villain was prepared. The Bearator slid his leg out of the way at the last minute, and XY stumbled and fell to his knees, gasping. As the Bearator stood over him, XY shut his eyes, squeezing out the hot tears pooling up. There was no escaping the inevitable. He really <em>was</em> going to die.</p><p class="Preference">The Bearator scoffed. “There really isn’t anything else <em>to</em> you, is there? Just some dumbass musician who thinks the world only exists to adore you. And to think that I actually used to <em>listen</em> to your crappy music…”</p><p class="Preference">XY’s eyes shot open and he dove at the Bearator’s legs. Caught by surprise, the Bearator stumbled backward to the ground and XY landed on top of him. XY straddled the villain’s chest and started punching him in the face, but the Bearator caught XY’s fist in his hand and squeezed. XY shrieked in pain and froze. The Bearator stuck his other hand claw in the turntable’s strap, bucked XY off, and rolled backward to his feet. The strap broke and the turntable fell to the ground. The Bearator stomped it hard, smashing it to pieces. With a yell, the Bearator leapt into the air, both hand claws out and pointing at XY’s face. XY cringed and screamed in terror, raising his arms to shield himself, knowing it was useless.</p><p class="Preference">A green shield connected solidly with the Bearator’s chest, knocking him back away from XY. The shield bounced off the ground, deflected off of Mecha-Man, and returned in the direction from which it had come.</p><p class="Preference">A familiar voice clucked in disappointment. “Dude,” it drawled. “It’s always a tragedy when a vintage turntable bites the dust.”</p><p class="Preference">XY spun wildly to find his rescuer. It was the Heroes of Paris.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In case any of the Americans out there (like me) need the reminder, “football” in Europe – and the rest of the world – is the name of the sport we call “soccer.” Hence the net.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cat Noir’s mouth set in a hard line in front of one of the football nets. Beside him, Carapace reached up to catch his shield. Taureau Dechaine loomed behind them, arms folded and cattle prod in hand, with the Hound and Viperion flanking them. Near the center of the field, the cordon of villains surrounding XY slowly turned to face them. In addition to the four he recognized, Cat Noir saw a further three villains with Night Bat, one of whom held a pair of very familiar hand claws. He was taken back to the last time he had seen them, when Man-Bear was killed – the Bear Miraculous was back in use once more. And it looked like the Prior had brought another of his disciples with him this time.</p><p>If they had known how many villains were going to be here – and that two of them would be Dark Acolytes – Cat Noir would definitely have called in reinforcements.</p><p>But if they’d stopped to wait, XY would probably already be dead.</p><p>“Looks like we’ve got a party!” Cat Noir called, his voice echoing on all sides of the stadium. “Pity they trashed the tunes!”</p><p>“Nothing to worry about: we can provide our own ‘beats’!” joked Taureau Dechaine, cracking his knuckled audibly before smacking his cattle prod against his palm.</p><p>“So what’s the plan, dude?” Carapace muttered to Cat Noir, raising an eyebrow subtly.</p><p>“Get them away from XY,” Cat Noir muttered back, slightly louder so the others could hear. “Keep XY safe.”</p><p>“Do we have to?” asked the Hound. Cat Noir gave him a dirty look. “Oh, fine.”</p><p>“No, the Hound’s got a point…” Viperion observed, plucking a couple strings on his lyre. “I mean, all of this <em>is</em> his fault…”</p><p>“Not exactly the point, dude,” Carapace whispered back.</p><p>Across the field, Night Bat caught Cat Noir’s eye, and his eyes light up maliciously. “I had hoped to add another member to my little group with this pathetic excuse for a human being,” Night Bat commented, striding across the circle and past the spot where XY lay on the ground hugging his knees. “Instead, I can harvest another five miraculous!”</p><p>“Only if you tear it from my cold, clammy fingers!” retorted Cat Noir, tightening his grip on his staff and dropping into a fighting stance.</p><p>“That <em>is</em> the idea.” Night Bat’s group spread out in a line, leaving XY behind them. Mecha-Man kicked off the ground, propelled upward by his jetpack, and shot toward them ten meters above the ground. The Prior and his disciple took positions on opposite ends of the line, with the miraculous users between them, flanking Night Bat.</p><p>“Mecha-Man is mine!” declared the Hound. He tossed the end of his leash to Taureau Dechaine, who caught it in one hand and spun around, spinning the Hound and pulling him off the ground. He released the leash and sent the Hound hurtling through the air on a collision course with Mecha-Man. “Time for round two, Rust Bucket!” he bellowed, arms spread wide. Mecha-Man turned to hover, aimed both his arm cannons at the Hound, and fired. A single glob of chi-putty shot out of the left cannon, while the right merely smoked. Mecha-Man had a moment to smack it in disgust before the Hound, who had shifted in midair to avoid the chi-putty, crashed into him, sending them both hurtling into the stadium’s second deck. “This is for London!” he shouted as Mecha-Man slammed into two rows of seats, sending plastic splinters flying. The Hound looped his leash around a protrusion from the stadium roof, pulled a flip, and landed on his feet three rows above Mecha-Man.</p><p>Mecha-Man pushed himself up and turned on the Hound. “Are you <em>seriously</em> still holding a grudge for that?” he demanded, firing an energy beam at him.</p><p>The Hound spun his leash, deflecting the beam back at him. Energy coursed over Mecha-Man’s suit and into the concrete at his feet. “You tried to blow up my city!”</p><p>“Nothing got damaged!” Mecha-Man leapt, boosted the jump with his jetpack, and soared over the Hound’s head, unleashing energy from both arms.</p><p>“That extra bomb was bad form!” the Hound shot back, evading the energy beams before snagging Mecha-Man’s ankle with his leash and dragging him back down into the seats.</p><p>Cat Noir turned away from his cousin and raced toward Night Bat, the rest of the heroes behind him. Even if the Hound kept Mecha-Man occupied, that still left six opponents, two of them Dark Acolytes. In front of him, Night Bat brandished his sword in one hand, his other upraised, his eyes black. Cat Noir extended his staff, planted it in the sod between them, and launched himself into the air, sailing around the staff and aiming to land right in front of Night Bat. Night Bat flicked his wrist, and a bolt of black energy shot out at Cat Noir’s staff as he neared the apex of his arc. Cat Noir pushed himself up higher into the air and retracted his staff moments before the lightning reached it, replanting his staff after the lightning passed and stilting his way forward.</p><p>Tyran-X twirled his lasso over his head, formed an enormous loop, and threw it at the heroes, who scattered apart. “Dino-Quake!” he shouted, stomping his foot. The earth beneath his foot split apart, forming a crack in the field that shot straight toward the heroes before diverging into a T. Cat Noir, still in midair, retracted his staff moments before the ground beneath it crumbled away. He reset his staff on the near side of the crack and pushed himself higher to clear it. Carapace and Viperion dove in opposite directions to escape the earthquake, while Taureau Dechaine slammed his foot into the ground and leapt over the growing chasm. The lasso loop came down around Taureau Dechaine’s arm, and Tyran-X swung him around and slammed him into the ground on the opposite side of the group of villains from where they had started. Taureau Dechaine twisted to place his feet under him, landed on the field, and set his legs before reaching down and grabbing the lasso rope. He jerked the rope hard, and Tyran-X stumbled off-balance. Taureau Dechaine pulled him to the ground, freed his ankle from the lasso, and charged, bellowing in fury. Tyran-X rose to one knee and lunged forward past Night Bat, tackling Taureau Dechaine around the waist.</p><p>Carapace rolled to his feet on one side of the earthquake that had shattered the field and drove the rim of his shield up into the Prior’s chin, knocking him backward off-balance. He ducked a swipe from the Bear Miraculous user’s hand claws, grabbed his wrist, and bent it back. The guy dropped that hand claw, and Carapace caught it in his shield. It slid off, and Carapace drove it into the ground with his foot. “What are you supposed to be?” he scoffed in some amusement.</p><p>“Do you want to feel the Bearator’s wrath?” he demanded, breaking Carapace’s grip on his wrist and dropping to sweep Carapace’s legs out from under him. Carapace leapt backward, narrowly avoided a wad of chi-putty from the Prior, and sidestepped a follow-up kick to his side from the Bearator. The Prior leapt at him, swinging his quarterstaff at Carapace’s head, but Carapace ducked beneath the attack, which hit the Bearator in the arm instead as he went to punch Carapace. Carapace planted one foot on the ground, slammed his shield into the Bearator’s gut, and kicked the Prior in the chest. The Prior fell to the ground next to the base of Cat Noir’s staff.</p><p>As Cat Noir descended toward Night Bat on the far side of the chasm Tyran-X had formed down the middle of the field, he extended his staff and aimed to land just in front of Night Bat. On seeing this, the villain stepped back a pace. His sword flashed as he slashed at Cat Noir’s head the moment Cat Noir landed. Cat Noir raised his staff to parry, and the sword glanced harmlessly away. Cat Noir dropped into his standard fencing stance, one hand back, and met Night Bat’s furious attack with a solid defense.</p><p>“A fencer, I see,” observed Night Bat, as casually as one would comment on the weather. “Your defense is adequate, although your footwork leaves much to be desired.” He lunged forward and evaded Cat Noir’s parry, scoring a shallow slash to his arm.</p><p>Cat Noir hissed in pain, but gritted his teeth and jumped back to buy space. He tossed his staff in the air and caught it with his left hand, just in time to block Night Bat’s next strike at an angle. Swinging his staff around he drove the tip of Night Bat’s sword into the ground, spun around, and elbowed him in the gut with as much force as he could muster in his injured arm. Night Bat gasped in surprise and dropped back a pace. The other Dark Acolyte stepped forward to help, swinging his quarterstaff at Cat Noir’s head.</p><p>Night Bat shook his head and held up a hand without taking his eyes off of Cat Noir. “No, Deacon,” he ordered. “Help Elettrisicario with Viperion.” He shifted his grip on the sword. “I will teach the Cat a lesson!” His eyes lit up with fury. “You may have skills, child,” he observed, feinting a stab at Cat Noir’s gut, “but I have crossed blades with the best swordsmen the world over for centuries!”</p><p>The Deacon turned away as Night Bat’s eyes flashed black and the wind picked up around him. He shot upward into the air, held aloft on a swirling column of wind. His fingertips crackled with electricity, and he held out one hand. A bolt of lightning lanced out at Cat Noir, who sprang away, extended his staff, and vaulted over the heads of the others into the first tier of the stadium, chased by a flurry of lightning bolts. Cat Noir continued to dodge between the chairs as Night Bat shot black lightning at him over and over. Through the smoke of ozone and melting plastic Cat Noir could barely see his friends still on the field.</p><p>“Cat, go left… now!” shouted Viperion. Cat Noir obeyed instantly, moments before Mech-Man melted a hole straight through the stands right where he had been standing.</p><p>Close to the near sideline, Viperion rolled to his feet, holding his lyre by one limb, spun it around, grabbed the other limb, and brought up in front of his chest to block a punch from Elettrisicario. Elettrisicario stepped back to avoid Viperion’s follow-up kick, spun around a punch, and whipped out with his lightning rod to strike Viperion’s leg. Viperion, however, dropped his lyre straight to counter. Elettrisicario lunged again, and Viperion parried with his lyre, swinging it around to lie across the back of his arm as a shield and holding it by one limb, knocking the lightning rod aside. Elettrisicario stabbed at Viperion’s shoulder, and Viperion raised his lyre, rotating it slightly to expose the strings. The lightning rod stuck through the space between two of the lyre’s strings, and Viperion immediately twisted, wrenching the lightning rod out of Elettrisicario’s hands. Viperion spun the lyre and launched the lightning rod across the field, over the heads of the other combatants, where it stuck in the ground near the far boundary line, waving back and forth. “Thanks, babe,” he whispered to himself.</p><p>Elettrisicario scoffed. “I don’t need a weapon to kill a Snake like you.” He flexed his arms. “I made my first kill before I was old enough to drive, and I did it with my bare hands!”</p><p>Viperion snorted and leapt back, careful to avoid where Taureau Dechaine and Tyran-X were wrestling, holding his lyre across his body. “You’ll have to touch me first for that to happen!”</p><p>“Eelecrocution!” Elettrisicario’s hand was wreathed with crackling electricity. He lunged forward, hand outstretched toward Viperion. Viperion, however, sidestepped and dragged his foot where Elettrisicario would trip on it. Elettrisicario stumbled and waved his arm, catching Tyran-X with his hand. Tyran-X fell to the ground, panting and twitching. Elettrisicario landed on top of him and immediately sprang back to his feet with a snarl.</p><p>Anticipating the danger from his side, Viperion ducked the Deacon’s swinging quarterstaff and spun around a kick, dropping into a crouch and holding his lyre under one arm. The Deacon’s momentum carried him past Viperion, who pushed him off balance before kicking him in the back. Viperion glanced at his wrist and grimaced: “Second Chance is about to expire, and this is our best attempt yet.”</p><p>“I guess we’re winging it from here.” Cat Noir glared up at Night Bat, hovering near the second tier of the stadium, and dove across an aisle to avoid another bolt of lightning. The row of seats he hid behind exploded in a shower of plastic, and he spun his staff in a tight circle to block the worst of the shrapnel. A mostly-intact seat landed in front of Cat Noir, and he stuck one end of his staff under it, flung it into the air, and smacked it with his staff, launching it at Night Bat. Night Bat blasted the seat apart with another blast of lightning, but Cat Noir vaulted through the air right behind the seat, sailing through the cloud of debris and kicking Night Bat in the chest with both feet, knocking him out of the air. Night Bat fell away from him and righted himself just before he landed on the field, rolling over several times and finally stumbling to his feet.</p><p>As he raced across the field in pursuit, Cat Noir saw out of the corner of his eye a bolas skipping across the short grass at his ankles and dove to one side, narrowly avoiding it. The Deacon was on top of him in an instant, swinging his quarterstaff at Cat Noir’s head. Cat Noir parried and drove the quarterstaff into the ground. Across the field he could see Night Bat advancing on Carapace, who was still locked in combat against the Prior and Bearator. Cat Noir was about to follow to help Carapace when the ground shook beneath him.</p><p>Taureau Dechaine barreled past, leapt across the gaping chasm in the ground, and charged Carapace’s position. Carapace turned away from the Prior and raised his shield to block Night Bat’s sword thrust with moments to spare before sidestepping to avoid the Bearator’s claws.</p><p>“In-Di-No!” shouted Tyran-X, whipping out his lasso at Taureau Dechaine. A hole appeared in the ground in front of Taureau Dechaine, spilling lava over the playing field. Taureau Dechaine, however, jumped over the lava hole, landed, and tackled the Prior and Bearator to the ground. The earth shook as they landed. None of the three rose.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Cat Noir’s jaw clenched as he looked over the battleground spread out around him, churning up the football field, already rent apart by an earthquake, a newly-formed pit of lava still bubbling up near midfield. The Hound and Mecha-Man continued to fight in the second tier of the stadium, energy pulses shooting off in every direction as the Hound deflected repeated blasts across the field into the stands on the far side. One flew down into the field and struck the far sideline, spraying Carapace and Night Bat with dirt. Carapace had turned to fully face Night Bat and was putting up a good fight, blocking all of Night Bat’s sword thrusts with his shield, though with each block his arms dropped perceptibly lower. However, Carapace wasn’t attacking; he was entirely in a defensive posture. On the near side of the field, Elettrisicario had reclaimed his lightning rod; he and the Deacon had Viperion trapped between them. Viperion held his lyre in one hand and ducked beneath a strike from the Deacon, allowing the quarterstaff to glance off the lyre’s strings into Elettrisicario’s matching swing. Elettrisicario hissed and shook his hand in irritation when the staff struck his knuckles. And just to the side from them stood Tyran-X, over the spot where Taureau Dechaine lay unmoving atop the Prior and Bearator. Tyran-X swung his lasso over his head and dropped it to slide around Taureau Dechaine’s neck.</p><p class="Preference">“No!” shouted Cat Noir, eyes alight with rage, charging the fifteen meters separating them. As he neared the edge of the chasm, he planted his staff in the soft ground close to the edge on his side and hit the button to extend the staff, propelling himself up and over the gap. When the staff stood almost vertical he gave it another burst, pushing himself up even higher, before retracting the staff and bringing it down in a vicious slash at Tyran-X’s head.</p><p class="Preference">Tyran-X released Taureau Dechaine from his lasso before it could pull tight and dove backward into a handstand, narrowly avoiding Cat Noir’s staff, which dug into the grass. The loose dirt beneath Tyran-X’s hand shifted, and he fell to the ground on his back with a grunt. Rolling to his feet he stepped on Elettrisicario’s ankle as Viperion ducked under a slash from the Deacon’s quarterstaff, which caught Elettrisicario a glancing blow to the shoulder. Elettrisicario yelped in pain and turned away from Viperion, reaching down to lever his lightning rod under Tyran-X’s foot. Viperion sprang to his feet and caught the Deacon in the gut with a punch, chasing after him as he backed away from the others, dodging the chi-putty wads the Deacon flung at him. Elettrisicario shoved Tyran-X off of his foot and spun around, aiming a slash from his lightning rod at Cat Noir.</p><p class="Preference">“Nice try,” Cat Noir taunted, parrying the attack and backhanding Elettrisicario across the face. “But I think you’ll be <em>shocked</em> to know that won’t work on me!” Elettrisicario stumbled backward, Cat Noir jabbed him in the waist with the tip of his staff. “I think you get my <em>point</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">Elettrisicario grunted and batted the staff away. “Are you normally so talkative when you’re fighting people?” he demanded, ducking Cat Noir’s punch and kicking him hard in the chest.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir jumped with the kick and sprang backward through a back-flip. Landing on his feet he felt Tyran-X’s lasso loop pull tight around his wrist and dropped to the ground, stabbing his staff into the turf just as Tyran-X pulled the lasso taut. He gritted his teeth and pulled back, clenching his abs against the pressure from the lasso loop. “Kinda,” he responded to Elettrisicario with a strained grunt. “I mean, that’s sort of my thing!” As Tyran-X tugged harder on him, Cat Noir suddenly pulled his staff from the ground and jumped, twisting so his feet pointed straight at Tyran-X. Tyran-X stumbled off-balance at the sudden weight shift, and Cat Noir struck him in the chest with both feet, propelling him back to the ground. Cat Noir, seeing an opportunity, reached down for the dinosaur-tooth necklace around Tyran-X’s neck. His fingers had just barely brushed against the miraculous when Tyran-X landed on the ground and drove his forehead up into Cat Noir’s nose. Blood spurting from his nose, Cat Noir sprang off in a back-flip as the lasso loosened, freeing his hand. He landed right in front of Elettrisicario and dropped to the ground, sweeping Elettrisicario’s feet out from under him.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, come on!” Cat Noir complained, pinching his nose to slow the blood flow. “That <em>snot</em> cool!”</p><p class="Preference">At that moment a cry pierced the air. Cat Noir turned in time to see the Hound still in the second tier, spinning his leash as a shield, fending off a barrage from Mecha-Man who stood above him. The force of the energy pressed him backward toward the front of the tier until his back pressed against the edge of the railing. Mecha-Man activated his second energy cannon, and the Hound fell backward over the railing. Mecha-Man took to the air on his jetpack to follow. The Hound threw his leash to wrap around Mecha-Man’s ankle, catching himself, and started retracting the leash to draw himself closer to Mecha-Man. Mecha-Man looked down at the Hound and shook his foot, throwing the Hound off and into the air. As the Hound sailed up in front of him, he raised both arm cannons to fire. A green shield flew through the twin energy beams and struck Mecha-Man in the chest, knocking him backward into the ground. The earth churned as Mecha-Man struck and slid, his jetpack leaving a long furrow across the field. The Hound spun his leash over his head wildly, only slowing his descent marginally.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace’s shield caromed off wildly toward the opposite end of the stadium.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir turned around to find Carapace still fighting Night Bat near where one of the goals had stood, but now without his shield. Somewhere along the way, he had claimed one of the bars from the destroyed goal and was now using that to duel Night Bat. He dove to avoid a slash, struck Night Bat across the back with his bar, and punched Night Bat in the side. Night Bat, however, formed a magic shield to block the strike to his back and grabbed Carapace’s fist, jerking it back so he dropped the metal bar. Night Bat jumped, swept into the air in the middle of a whirlwind, dragging Carapace up with him. He raised his sword above his head.</p><p class="Preference">“Carapace!” Cat Noir shouted, sizing up his jump.</p><p class="Preference">Someone else intervened first.</p><p class="Preference">Night Bat didn’t notice when the leash caught around his ankle. He did notice when the Hound pulled, dragging him out of his wind column entirely. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Carapace drew his knees in and kicked Night Bat in the chest, pushing away from him and out into space. Night Bat hurled a disk of black energy at the Hound, who released Night Bat’s ankle and dove to one side, narrowly avoiding it. The disk struck the ground and drove a meter into it before dissipating into nothingness. Cat Noir stabbed his staff into the ground at an angle and extended it just below Carapace. Carapace reached out and grabbed the staff as he fell past, sliding down and straight into Cat Noir. Cat Noir caught him around the shoulders as he landed, and they rolled over each other until they finally stopped.</p><p class="Preference">“What were you thinking, dude?” demanded Cat Noir, pulling Carapace up. “That could have been <em>tort</em>-gic!”</p><p class="Preference">“That one was a stretch, even for you, dude,” Carapace retorted, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged one shoulder. “I figured <em>someone</em> had to keep the vamp busy.” He clenched his fists and dropped into a fighting stance next to Cat Noir as Tyran-X regained his feet and Mecha-Man landed beside him. Opposite them, Elettrisicario twirled his lightning rod and leapt at Cat Noir with a wild yell. Cat Noir raised his staff horizontal to catch the lightning rod and allowed Elettrisicario’s momentum to carry him over his head and into Tyran-X. Tyran-X had just thrown his lasso, which looped around Elettrisicario’s lightning rod. Cat Noir spun around and kicked Elettrisicario in the back, knocking him straight into Tyran-X’s chest.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace evaded a spray of chi-putty from Mecha-Man, bobbed around him, and came up behind his back. He kicked Mecha-Man in the back of the knee, but Mecha-Man locked the leg and Carapace’s foot rebounded off with a clang. Carapace ducked as Mecha-Man whipped around with his arm out, and threw himself at Mecha-Man’s middle. Mecha-Man caught him and activated his jetpack, shooting up into the air. Carapace kicked away before they were more than a couple meters off the ground, contorted to avoid a spray of chi-putty, and landed near midfield, close to XY, stumbling to keep his feet under him.</p><p class="Preference">“Is that the best you got, dude?” he taunted as Mecha-Man opened up on him with both energy cannons. Carapace made to dive away as energy beams tore up the field around him. He stopped mid-jump, glanced down, and instead leapt on top of XY, taking an energy beam in the back as he did so. He hissed in pain and made no move to defend himself when Mecha-Man landed over him and shot a bolas from his launcher that wrapped around Carapace’s ankles.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir, however, couldn’t help Carapace as Elettrisicario and Tyran-X had begun herding him toward where Viperion was still fighting the Deacon. Although they had more than held their own, Cat Noir could feel his strength flagging. Carapace and Taureau Dechaine were both down; Carapace seemed to be writing in pain. Viperion was slow in dodging a kick from the Deacon and fell backward into Cat Noir, who caught him with an arm under the armpit, holding his staff at an angle to deflect a blow from Elettrisicario. His knuckles stung where the lightning rod struck. Across the field the Hound was fighting against both Night Bat and Mecha-Man, giving ground with each step. The Hound used his leash to block an attack from Night Bat, but was too preoccupied to avoid a spray of chi-putty from Mecha-Man.</p><p class="Preference">When Tyran-X threw his lasso in a loop, twirling it around Cat Noir and Viperion, Cat Noir was too exhausted to move out of the way. Tyran-X shouted, “Di-Nado!” The wind picked up inside the lasso loop, spinning with the rope. Cat Noir felt his feet leave the ground as the tornado formed, pulling him and Viperion up in its midst, arcing through the air toward the first deck of the stadium. The best Cat Noir could manage was to keep his hold on Viperion’s shoulder and extend his staff to wedge between two seats and guide them back to solid ground along the concourse just behind the seating area. The sun blacked out above him as the remaining villains hovered above them, held aloft by Mecha-Man’s jetpack and Night Bat’s magic.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">All the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. He couldn’t breathe! A solid weight lay over him. He had spent most of the last half-hour lying curled up in the middle of the field, trying to make himself as small as possible and praying to whatever gods were out there that the madness would end. The earth had been thrown up all around him, getting into his hair and onto his clothes. Energy blasts had peppered the ground. Heat had seared his face from the lava pit that had opened up mere meters from where he lay. Then something solid had landed on top of him and a searing light had engulfed them, all around, burning through his tightly-clenched eyelids, accompanied by a high-pitched mechanical whine. The lights faded and the whine stopped. XY put up his hands to find a face centimeters from his own. The weight eased, and he opened his eyes to find Carapace crouching over him, his eyes clenched tightly shut in a pained grimace. He pushed Carapace away and crabwalked back away from him, eyes wide in terror.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace curled up into a ball, pulling his knees up to his chest, and XY could see something wrapped tightly around his ankles. Carapace reached down to touch it, but smoke curled up from the tips of his gloved fingers where they touched the rope, and his gloves came away blackened and burnt. Carapace winced and shook his hands, hissing in pain.</p><p class="Preference">The stadium was suddenly filled with a colossal rushing of wind. Near the far side of the field Cat Noir and Viperion were shot up into the air in the middle of a tornado. Cat Noir’s staff emerged from the whirlwind and embedded in the upper deck of the stadium, and the five villains surrounding them were lifted into the air. XY could see Mecha-Man hovering in midair with his jetpack, holding the Deacon by the back of his robes. Night Bat rode in the center of a column of air, with Elettrisicario and Tyran-X floating in smaller cyclones below him. The five villains turned as one to follow Cat Noir and Viperion onto the stadium seating.</p><p class="Preference">“Where are they going?” asked XY, eyes wide.</p><p class="Preference">“I guess Night Bat doesn’t think we’re much of a threat anymore,” Carapace replied weakly. He tried to force his fingers under the bolas cord and winced. “Not that he’s exactly <em>wrong</em>…”</p><p class="Preference">XY turned away from him to survey the rest of the stadium. Several meters away he could see a crater in the turf with a mass of blue protruding from it. He had felt the earth rumble, but hadn’t been able to bring himself to look before now. “Is–is that–is he…” He swallowed and his voice trailed off. “Is Taureau Dechaine… <em>dead</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">Carapace stopped fighting with the bolas wrapped around his ankles and looked up. His eyes narrowed and he examined Taureau Dechaine critically. Finally he shook his head. “He’s still breathing,” he answered, relief evident in his voice. “The Prior must have hit him with chi-putty. But that means he can’t move – that stuff freezes a miraculous user in place.” He nodded to the far side of the field. “That’s what got the Hound, too.”</p><p class="Preference">Everyone’s attention was elsewhere. The villains had left him alone for the entire fight as if he didn’t matter, the Heroes were all either incapacitated or otherwise occupied now, and across the field XY could see the stadium exit. He’d lost his phone somewhere along the way, but all he had to do was get out of the stadium and someone would find him – right? After all, he was a celebrity! Fans were always searching for him! Maybe he’d even give an autograph to whichever fan picked him up and brought him back to the hotel. Then he could dedicate the next concert to the Heroes of Paris as a “thank you” for them saving him. Or maybe not – they were just doing what they were supposed to do, after all. And what <em>he</em> was supposed to do <em>wasn’t</em> to put his own neck on the line. He didn’t belong here! He wasn’t a superhero! And they came to save him – it would be silly for him not to take advantage of this distraction to escape! XY pushed himself up to one knee.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace’s narrowed eyes followed him. “What do you think <em>you</em>’re doing?” he demanded.</p><p class="Preference">“What does it look like?” grunted XY, standing up and dusting off his costume as a steady stream of soil poured out of his hair. He could feel tears in the thin fabric. His knee almost buckled with a twinge of pain, and he looked down to see what appeared to be blood staining his pants. “I’m getting the hell out of here. This isn’t my fight!”</p><p class="Preference">“Like <em>hell</em> it’s not!” retorted Carapace, glaring up at him in reproach. “Why the hell do you think me and my friends are even <em>here</em> right now!?! Do you think we just run off to fight the bad guys for <em>fun</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t you?” XY scoffed, sneering down at him. “Fun and fame: that’s what this whole superhero thing is about, right?”</p><p class="Preference">“If that’s what you think, you <em>really</em> missed the mark on this stupid charade. None of us came into this thing looking for <em>fun</em>,” Carapace informed him, a threatening edge to his voice. “Maybe that was the reasoning for some of us when we started, but that’s not why we do it now – not when we’ve seen what can happen. The reason <em>any</em> of us do this is because it’s important. There are bad people out there, and <em>we</em> have to stop them. If we didn’t <em>have</em> to go out and stop them, we <em>wouldn’t</em>!” He chuckled darkly. “Do you want to know what we were trying to do before you faked an alien invasion to get attention? We just wanted to listen to a concert. That’s it. And suddenly half my team is down and the other half is probably about to join them. For you. Because you needed our help.” Carapace tried to stand up despite the bolas wrapped tightly around his ankle, lost his balance, and fell back to the ground. With a grunt he shifted into a sitting position and shook his head dismissively. “You can run away if you want, dude – I can’t exactly stop you. But if you stay, you can still make this right.”</p><p class="Preference">XY gave the stadium exit a last longing look. On further consideration, it <em>was</em> a little further away than he had thought… and his leg ached. Still, he hesitated.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace frowned. “If it helps you decide, if <em>you</em> get out of here and <em>we</em> all die, Ladybug <em>will</em> find out what happened, and then you’ll have to deal with <em>her</em>,” he informed him coldly. “I’m not sure which you should be more afraid of: Ladybug, Ryoku, or Rena Rouge… though it might actually be Multiplice. You’d never even see her coming…”</p><p class="Preference">XY paled. “Fine,” he grumbled, turning back to face Carapace. “What do you need me to do?”</p><p class="Preference">“Take this goddamn bolas off of my ankles for starters,” replied Carapace, raising an eyebrow at him. The bolas was a simple construction – two metal spheres the size of golf balls with a layer of hardened clay surrounding them, connected together by a simple hemp rope.</p><p class="Preference">“Hell no!” XY retorted, staring horrified at the blackened tips of Carapace’s gloves. “Those things will burn <em>me</em> like they did you! I need my fingers!”</p><p class="Preference">Carapace arched an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “And I <em>don’t</em>? They only affect miraculous users, dude,” he assured XY irritably. “You’ll be fine.”</p><p class="Preference">“You say so…” XY muttered doubtfully. The bolas balls felt cool to the touch. However, they had twisted around several times, and it took a moment for XY to get the rope untangled and free Carapace’s legs.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace immediately sprang to his feet and reached down to pull XY back up after him. “Thanks,” he said. “Now get the chi-putty off the Hound and Taureau Dechaine, and we’ll take it from there.”</p><p class="Preference">XY stumbled to comply, first hobbling over to the Hound. The Hound had landed on his back and faced up into the sky, his eyes closed and the muscles around his mouth moving the slightest amount. XY could see the glob of light grey putty on his shoulder. It had the consistency of bread dough and stuck to his fingers when he peeled it off. No sooner was the putty off the Hound’s suit than the hero reached up and grabbed XY by the throat, eyes shooting open into narrow slits. “You’ll have to rip this miraculous from my–” He stopped when he finally registered who it was. “Oh. It’s just you.” His grip loosened the slightest bit, and XY drew in a shaky breath.</p><p class="Preference">Once the Hound released his throat, XY grabbed his hand and hauled him up to his feet before running over to do the same for Taureau Dechaine. The big man was lying face down with the chi-putty on his chest, and XY at first struggled to roll him over onto his back to reach it. Finally he managed to wrestle him over, using his own cattle prod as a lever. He found the chi-putty and peeled it off, allowing Taureau Dechaine to stand up. Finally the three heroes stood together around XY near midfield.</p><p class="Preference">“My hero,” the Hound mocked, sneering.</p><p class="Preference">“I didn’t <em>have</em> to help you,” grumbled XY, folding his arms and frowning at him.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, I know.”</p><p class="Preference">Taureau Dechaine put a hand on the Hound’s shoulder and gave him a stern look. The Hound glared back at him and scoffed.</p><p class="Preference">“Right,” Carapace began, smacking his fist on the shield he had retrieved. “We need to get back up there and get the others out. Can you get us up there?” he asked, turning to the Hound.</p><p class="Preference">The Hound sized up Taureau Dechaine and shrugged. “Sure, why not? But first, I think we need a little… Doggedness!”</p><p class="Preference">XY gasped in surprise at the rush of strength and determination that washed over him. He couldn’t exactly go toe-to-toe with one of the villains, but he didn’t feel like falling to the ground and hiding under a bench anymore, either.</p><p class="Preference">Carapace nodded, the fire returning to his eyes. “Thanks for that, dude. Now…”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound threw his leash up into the air, caught it around a protrusion from the roof well beyond where they could see lightning and energy beams lighting up the upper deck, and tugged on it as a test. The leash held. He grabbed Carapace’s hand, and Carapace grabbed the back of Taureau Dechaine’s suit. Then the three heroes flew up into the sky, angling toward the battle still raging above them.</p><p class="Preference">XY turned away as Carapace dropped Taureau Dechaine to land on one end of the second tier, away from the fighting. He frowned: the two forms that had been lying in the same depression where Taureau Dechaine had fallen were starting to stir. As XY watched, first the Prior and then the Bearator pushed himself to his feet. The Prior steadied himself with his quarterstaff, and the Bearator shook his head, knocking the cobwebs loose.</p><p class="Preference">
  <em>Damn.</em>
</p><p class="Preference">“Stampede!” rang out through the stadium, and the second level rumbled. “Shell-ter!” “Cataclysm!” The stadium shook and a plume of smoke and dust exploded out from the stadium’s outer wall. A blast of lightning arced across the stadium in all directions from a spot near the billowing smoke cloud, followed by an eerie silence.</p><p class="Preference">XY stared at the villains, and they looked back at him.</p><p class="Preference">“Perhaps we’ll do this again some time,” the Bearator finally told him, his eyes drifting past XY to the spot above them where the Cataclysm had come from.</p><p class="Preference">“I sure hope not,” XY replied, trying to put as much force into the statement as he could. He stood his ground, fists clenched at his sides.</p><p class="Preference">The Bearator scoffed and took off jogging toward the exit on the far side of the stadium, the Prior stumbling along after him, supporting himself with his quarterstaff.</p><p class="Preference">The doors had just closed behind them when the five heroes landed on the ground near XY. He turned to examine them, and saw Cat Noir and Viperion leaning against each other and being supported by Taureau Dechaine. Taureau Dechaine himself sported a fresh bruise under his eye, and Carapace had a cut on his shoulder. The Hound cradled his wrist, wincing from pain.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir pushed himself away from Taureau Dechaine and approached XY. XY’s eyes widened nervously, but Cat Noir only held out a hand. “Thanks,” Cat Noir said. “If it weren’t for you, I’m not sure what would have happened today.”</p><p class="Preference">XY took his hand and shook it. He shrugged, embarrassed. “Well, I mean, I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing, right?”</p><p class="Preference">Carapace gave him an encouraging grin and slapped him on the back. “We couldn’t have pulled it off without you, dude!”</p><p class="Preference">Taureau Dechaine gave him a curt nod, and Viperion grudgingly added, “Thanks.”</p><p class="Preference">XY nodded back, wringing his hands. “Yeah, yeah, not a problem. Always happy to help out a fan.”</p><p class="Preference">The Hound cocked his head and gave the others an incredulous look. “Hang on,” he began. “Why are we thanking him for saving us from trouble we only got into because we were saving him from trouble that <em>he himself caused</em>?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Felix Graham de Vanily: saying what everyone else is thinking but is too polite to say!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Adrien relaxed back into the couch in his bedroom and let out a quiet breath. Although he’d taken a couple painkillers the moment they got to the Mansion, his head was still killing him. And his muscles. And his chest where Tyran-X had kicked him. And his forearm where Night Bat had sliced through his suit. And…</p><p class="Preference">Honestly, it was easier at this point for him to take a “pain<em>less</em> inventory” than a “<em>pain</em> inventory”!</p><p class="Preference">“I really hope the girls finish up their spa day soon,” he grumbled, turning back to the video game just in time to watch Ivan’s character throw his mech off the edge of the map.</p><p class="Preference">“No kidding,” Felix agreed with a wince. He had claimed Adrien’s bed and was holding an icepack to his wrist.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, I’m so sorry I let you down,” Barkk whined from her position curled up on Felix’s shoulder, nuzzling the side of his neck. “I’m a bad dog.”</p><p class="Preference">“No, you’re the best dog I’ve ever had,” Felix assured her, stroking her head with a finger.</p><p class="Preference">“That’s true,” joked Adrien. “His father was allergic!”</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, hush,” Felix retorted, sticking out it tongue. “You know I always wanted a pet; that we couldn’t have one was <em>pet</em>-icularly a-<em>paw</em>-ling!”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan snorted. “Do the puns run in the family?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it’s genetic.”</p><p class="Preference">Plagg shoved a cheese ball in his mouth. “A holder after my own heart.” He and the other three Kwamis had claimed the coffee table and the snacks on it for themselves. Sass and Wayzz had divided a can of sardines between them, and Stompp was halfway through a bag of crackers.</p><p class="Preference">“You’re just saying that because he can afford the best cheese!” Stompp scoffed, shoving the last few crackers in his mouth.</p><p class="Preference">Plagg tossed a cheese crumb at Stompp. “Ya know, that actually hadn’t oc-<em>curd</em> to me, but this is <em>whey</em> nicer than anything my last holder could afford!”</p><p class="Preference">“Do they ever stop?” Nino asked Wayzz, not taking his eyes off the screen, where Ivan and Luka were trying to trap his mech between them.</p><p class="Preference">Wayzz hummed in contemplation. “I do not believe so,” he finally admitted. “The two of them in fact prolonged the Hundred Years’ War by an extra decade thanks to an ill-timed pun!”</p><p class="Preference">“A <em>cat</em>-astrophic <em>ox</em>-currence!” observed Adrien.</p><p class="Preference">Nino elbowed him in the ribs. “Not cool, dude.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien smirked. “I suppose that one was <em>pet</em>-icularly ap-<em>paw</em>-ling.” He turned to look back at Felix, who was trying to stifle a laugh. “At least now we know how much you can carry!”</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah.” Felix held up his wrist and waved it, wincing. “Exactly this much <em>less</em> than two of your friends!” He glared at the back of Ivan’s head. “Seriously, what are they <em>feeding</em> you, big guy?”</p><p class="Preference">Ivan’s mech tripped off the platform, leaving Luka and Nino as the last two. He turned toward Felix and shrugged. “My mom’s a good cook.”</p><p class="Preference">“Clearly.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien turned back to follow the game just as Luka’s mech finished off Nino and the start screen flashed. A swirl of red magic washed through the room, settling on all five of them before dissipating. Adrien suddenly felt the bruises and cuts all over his body disappear and new energy return. Looking around, the others had been healed similarly. Luka stretched his shoulders with a contented sigh, twisting his neck in either direction. The yellowing bruise under Ivan’s eye had disappeared. Nino tossed the bloody gauze he’d been holding to his cheek onto the coffee table, revealing unmarred skin underneath.</p><p class="Preference">“It appears that Ladybug has finally gotten your message,” Wayzz observed, flying over to inspect Nino’s cheek. “And there was no lasting damage.”</p><p class="Preference">Felix tested his wrist and threw his icepack into the trash can next to Adrien’s bed. “Oh, bloody hell,” he groaned in relief, “do I wish <em>my</em> partner could do that!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien grinned. “Sorry, this one’s already taken!” He pushed himself up from the couch and tossed the controller at Felix. “Now that you can’t blame a loss on your wrist, ready to give it a shot?”</p><p class="Preference">Felix scoffed and took Adrien’s spot next to Nino on the couch. “Please,” he retorted. “Do you think your friends stand a chance against me?”</p><p class="Preference">“Tough talk, Dog-Boy!” quipped Ivan. “But I think your <em>bark</em> might prove to be worse than your <em>bite</em>!”</p><p class="Preference">Felix gave him a malicious smirk as Barkk fluttered down from his shoulder to join the other Kwamis, curling up between Plagg and Sass and picking out a stick of beef jerky. “Afraid I’m going to <em>horn</em> in on your title?”</p><p class="Preference">“You’d better hold up <em>your</em> end, Dog-Dude!” Nino warned Felix. “I don’t think I can take another loss happening just because my <em>partner</em> can’t handle it!”</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t worry,” Felix assured him, eyes lighting up with excitement. “These two won’t know what hit them!”</p><p class="Preference">“You’re going to feel really foolish when we knock you out in the first minute,” Luka commented calmly, giving Ivan a high-five.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien sat back on his bed to watch as his friends bantered back and forth about the game. This certainly wasn’t the way he had expected Nino’s hang-out idea to go today, but it had all turned out well enough in the end. After all, it didn’t really matter <em>what</em> they were doing as much as it mattered that they were doing it together. And after the number of hang-outs that his father had forced him to miss out on over the first two years he had known them, he would take all the opportunities he could get. Idly he checked his phone to see a new message from Marinette waiting for him.</p><p class="Preference">“The stadium looked like a warzone! What did you do to it!?!?!”</p><p class="Preference">“In our defense, I’m pretty sure most of that was from Tyran-X and Mecha-Man”</p><p class="Preference">“You’re not helping your case, Agreste”</p><p class="Preference">“Have I told you recently how incredible you are? &lt;3”</p><p class="Preference">“Flattery will get you nowhere. Out with it.”</p><p class="Preference">“So you know that XY CD Chloe gave me for my birthday? I’m burning it.”</p><p class="Preference">“Okay…”</p><p class="Preference">“Seriously, we’re all good here thanks to ML. Enjoy girl time. See you tonight.”</p><p class="Preference">“Chloe says you’re all utterly ridiculous.”</p><p class="Preference">“But I’m YOUR ridiculous”</p><p class="Preference">“And don’t you forget it! &lt;3 Love you”</p><p class="Preference">“Love you too, Bugaboo”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien glanced up when the weight on the bed shifted slightly. Luka had already gotten knocked out of the game. He picked up his guitar and started playing a new song. Adrien cocked his head: something about the melody struck a chord with him.</p><p class="Preference">Seeing the look in his face, Luka explained, “The five of us here.” He plucked something similar but without the same harmonies. “Our songs weren’t quite in sync this morning, though it was a subtle thing. Since the reveal and the fight, though…” The first song, full and rich. Adrien could pick out all the different lines merging together.</p><p class="Preference">“Is that going to be our next Kitty Section headliner?” Adrien asked, raising an eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">Luka hummed. “It could be,” he decided. “It’s certainly better than XY’s song…” He shifted his fingers along the guitar and started strumming. On the couch, Felix almost dropped his controller in surprise.</p><p class="Preference">“What’s with the fully-diminished sevenths?” Adrien demanded, wincing.</p><p class="Preference">“XY’s song,” Luka explained, letting the last chord die. “That’s all I was hearing from XY when we visited him the first time. But now?” He played something a little calmer, but still slightly modal and disjointed, ending on a major-minor seventh chord. “He actually did something good for someone else today. I… honestly didn’t think it was possible.” He paused. “But now it’s a question of how it will resolve…” He played a major chord, then a minor chord. He shrugged. “I suppose he could go either way.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded. “He took at least <em>one</em> positive step since then,” he noted, fishing XY’s fancy ring out of his pocket, tossed it in the air, and catching it one-handed. “Although this isn’t nearly as exciting as we all thought it might be a couple hours ago!”</p><p class="Preference">“He certainly took all of us in,” Luka agreed. “Xtreme tonalitY’s song sounded… off… but I didn’t realize <em>this</em> was why.”</p><p class="Preference">“You can at least give Bob Roth <em>this</em> much credit: he knows his special effects.” Adrien frowned. “How did we miss it?”</p><p class="Preference">Luka shrugged. “It’s not your fault. We were far enough away and saw enough of him to think he was legit, but not enough to question what we were seeing.”</p><p class="Preference">“Alya would’ve seen right through him,” Nino called from the couch as Ivan dodged, allowing Felix’s attack to strike Nino’s character.</p><p class="Preference">“Probably,” Adrien acknowledged, nodding. “But she has the Miraculous of Illusion.”</p><p class="Preference">“Night Bat thought there could be something to him, also,” Luka pointed out. “‘Xtreme tonalitY’ claimed to have too much power to ignore.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien frowned at the ring and set it on his nightstand. “Imagine it: all of that trouble over a stupid piece of costume jewelry.”</p><p class="Preference">Luka shrugged. “People do strange things in the search for power. It’s just that this time it was all purely illusory.”</p><p class="Preference">“The <em>power</em> might have been illusory,” Adrien agreed, “but the danger and trouble it caused was all too real.”</p><p class="Preference">Luka shook his head ruefully. “It still blows my mind that he thought being a hero was just about fun and games.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien grinned. “Eh, we have fun every so often,” he pointed out. “And we did <em>both</em> find our girls thanks to our miraculous.”</p><p class="Preference">Luka smiled fondly, staring at the wall. “True, but not quite the same thing.”</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah, not exactly.” Adrien nodded. “I am glad he decided to cancel the rest of the tour,” he observed. “And that he announced that ‘Xtreme tonalitY’ is hanging up the mask and entrusting his ‘powers’ to the Heroes of Paris. Such as they are.”</p><p class="Preference">“I suppose that’s for the best,” agreed Luka, nodding. “I can’t imagine Bob Roth being too happy about it, though.”</p><p class="Preference">“After today, he should be glad his son is still alive!”</p><p class="Preference">Luka chuckled. “I wonder if this means he’s turned over a new leaf.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien snorted. “Not likely. I mean, he <em>is</em> still XY…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes, Luka talks in musical terms, but it’s a language Adrien understands.</p><p>This is the end of “Guys’ Day Out.” The next story will be “An African Assist” (or something like that), and I have a couple one-shots and 3 more chapters of “The Woman out of the Fridge” to publish first.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>What Marinette and Alya are up to doesn’t actually factor into this story at all. In <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24960730/chapters/60421033">“Girls’ Day Out,”</a> the only boy to appear (other than the villains) was a two-year-old; in “Guys’ Day Out,” there aren’t any girls appearing at all (at this point I’m planning to do the same thing with “Girls’ Night Out” whenever that happens: no guys at all) – they get a mention in there, but that’s it. If you’re curious what they are doing while the guys get up to some stuff, the girls are doing a spa day. Chloe insisted.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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